The Fortress
by C Cubed
Summary: There are many worlds. Many Roses. Many heroes. Many villains. Many battles. Many wars. Many stories to be told. And they all revolve around one thing…The Fortress.
1. I

-1_Bang! Bang! Bang! _The soldiers pounded on the door of a small house in the village of Bryn. When there was no answer, one of them kicked the door down.

The soldiers walked into the house. Inside, they split up and went about taking valuables and looking for the tennants. One of them went into the bedroom and opened the closet.

"Got 'em," he called out to his comrades. The other two marched into the bedroom.

"Please, sir. We don't have the money this month. If you could just give us another few days-"

"Shut up, peasant. We've been told you have two daughters. Where are they?" the captain asked of the peasant.

"W-what do you want with them?" the peasant asked.

"You don't have our money. So, you need to compensate some other way."

"NO!" the peasant's wife shouted. "Please, take me instead. Not them, please not them," she sobbed.

"Shut up, woman. We would take you too, but you're too old and ugly. Now get away," the captain said coldly.

"Please, not them!" the peasant's wife pleaded. She crawled over to the captain and grabbed his leg. "Please, sir-"

"Get away, you filthy whore!" the captain shouted in revulsion. He kicked her in the face. "Now, I suggest you tell us where your daughters are, or we'll kill you both and burn this house to the ground."

"U-under the bed. Please, leave them alone. I'll pay you double," the peasant cried.

"No. John, go get them," the captain ordered.

The soldier named John pushed the bed violently away. Underneath were two girls, the oldest no older than fourteen. The other one, her sister, looked to be about nine.

"This one's too young. But _you..._" the captain said. He observed the older girl. At fourteen, she had filled out nicely. Her pretty face was clear of blemishes, and as the captain felt her long brown hair, he noted that it was soft and clean. "You're perfect."

She tried to slap him, for she was very brave. However, the captain was seven feet two at least, a giant. She stood at a mere five four. Her hand connected with his neck, and her nails left small red marks across it. He barely felt it.

"What is your name, cull?" he asked her nastily. When she didn't answer, he slapped her. She was knocked sideways and she crashed into the wall. "I said, what is your name!" the captain shouted.

"Carol!" she shouted through tears.

"You're quite a pretty one," the captain said quietly. His hand slowly found its way up to her breast.

"Get off of me!" she cried. He gave her bosom a squeeze and obediently let go.

"Take her," he said. "Kill everyone else except the father," the captain ordered his deputies. He then walked back outside the house. Through the open window, he heard swords being drawn, and the screams of the peasant's wife and younger daughter. He rolled himself a cigarette and lit it on a torch. After a minute, he heard the door open and close, and Carol crying. He dropped his smoke and stamped it out. Then he threw the torch through the window and walked towards the horses.

The soldiers rode towards the Castle with their prize tied up between them. Carol screamed, kicked, and struggled, but her efforts were to no avail. Every few minutes, one of the soldiers would squeeze her generous breasts, and she would struggle violently. Once she fell off the horse and wiggled on the ground like a worm. The soldiers laughed uproariously at this, and the Captain even poked her in the ass with his sword. This brought tears to her eyes, and she screamed for help. The Captain struck her with the blunt end of his sword, drawing blood across her forehead. She fainted.

"Shit, Cap, did you kill her?" John asked.

"No, idiot. I knocked her out. Now, what do you think we should do with her?"

"Well, Cap, she's out cold, and can't struggle. I think it would be downright wasteful to not take advantage of the absence of her mind," the third soldier, Evan, stated.

"Hell yeah. Let's do it right here! It's not like anybody can do anything," John said.

"Good idea, deputies. I'll go first, while you two stand guard," the Captain said.

"Aw, Cap,"

"C'mon, Cap!"

"Shut up, both of you, or you won't get any! Now stand guard."

It might not seem it, but Carol could not have picked a better night to get gang-raped. For as the captain was pulling off her shirt, the son of Robert "Fever" Brown, the most powerful warrior in the village, just happened to be going on a midnight ride to the castle armory. He passed her, and noticed the pretty girl from his school being beaten by the King's enforcers, the Brute Tre, as they were called. He had danced with her at many a Reap Festival, had even kissed her once. He never told, but he had had a crush on her since the first time they danced together, when they were both ten. So when he saw what was going on, he naturally decided to intervene.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asked.

"Cap! We got company!" John shouted.

"What the hell?" the Cap was interrupted removing Carol's skirt. He spun around and drew his sword. "Shit, that's the son of the Fever!"

"Cap?" John.

"Well, no matter. What do you want, you bastard?" the Captain said.

"Get away from her!" the boy shouted.

"Aw, little Jack Brown has a crush. That's so cute. Piss off, boy."

"N-no. If you don't get away from her, I'll-" Jack started.

"You'll what? Tell your daddy? He may be tough, but the years have been hard on daddy. You just stay the fuck out of our way, boy!" the Captain snarled.

"You're just lucky I caught you on the way to my destination. If I had a weapon..."

"You think of engaging the Captain in the field of honorable combat? Guess again, young child!" Evan said.

"I can take you three fools," Jack said, gaining confidence.

"Hmph. Doubt it as I may, I'd rather you fight..._them!_" the Captain shouted. He then snapped his fingers. Out of the ground spouted three small rings of fire, and out of them came three creatures Jack had never seen the likes of, not in his worst nightmares.

Jack eyed the creatures with a look of utmost horror on his face. They were small, probably only three and a half feet tall, and they had glowing red eyes. They walked on two stubby legs, with two small feet; from their torsos sprouted stubby arms with small hands. On each one of their heads was a single horn about eight inches long. Their entire bodies were colored black, and they had no facial features besides their haunting eyes.

_Those eyes!_

Jack had to step back a few feet from them, for when he looked into the eyes of one of them, he felt an intense fear of the creatures. They couldn't be killed; he should run, they would all kill him and kill Carol, he had to run away. He was so scared that for a minute he lost all will to fight. Then he regained control of himself and asked the Captain, "What in the name of the Man Jesus are those things?"

"Despairs. A wizard conjured them up for His Royal Highness one day, and they sorta stuck." he shrugged his shoulders. "Here, I'll even be nice and give you a weapon."

The Captain went to John and took his sword.

"Hey, boss-"

"Shut up, cull," the Captain snarled. He threw the sword to Jack, and Jack caught it by its hilt.

"Impressive. Now, _Tak!_"

The Despairs leapt towards Jack. He panicked and forgot all of his sword training. He swung the sword as hard as he could at the nearest one, and to his utter dismay, it went right through him!

"What the hell is this? Oh, I get it. A wizard, right. These are illusions, aren't they?" Jack said.

Before the Captain could answer, one of the Despairs tried to stab Jack in the leg with his horn. Jack's instincts let him dodge, but not quite in time. His pants leg cut, and he felt blood running down the back of his leg.

"Shit!"

Jack swung the sword at the Despair. It went right through him again. Another one leapt up at him, and he tried to parry it with the sword, but the thing went right through his sword and Jack went sprawling.

_"Can tah! Tak alah!" _the Captain shouted. The Despairs jumped at him again. Jack raised his sword in defiance and prepared to die.

Before the Despairs could get to him, however, there was a blinding flash of white light.

Jack had to shield his eyes from the light that nearly blinded him. _'This must be what death is like,' _he thought to himself. _'Endless light. Well, I guess there really is no afterlife.'_

After a couple seconds, Jack realized that the light was gone. He wasn't dead after all. He felt something heavy in his hand, where just a moment ago he held a blade. He uncovered his eyes. In the other sword's place was...an even greater sword? No, Jack thought. This is no sword.

It was about the size of a large sword, and it felt like steel, but it weighed virtually nothing. It was in the shape of a large rose, with the stem serving as the handle. Large, thorny spikes went all the way up the stem, starting at about the halfway mark, up to the red petals. Jack noticed that the petals were sharp.

Suddenly, Jack's head was filled with voices. He screamed and put his hands to his ears, dropping the rose.

_"Roses are Red, violets are blue, the one you love can be awakened by you," _Jack heard.

"W-what?" he stuttered.

"Get up, boy!" the Captain shouted. "What in the hell are you doing?" the Captain came closer to Jack and noticed the rose on the ground. "Ho-how did you get that? Tell me now, and you may yet live!"

"F-fuck you!" Jack picked the rose up from the ground with tremendous speed. He got up with the resilience of a man who had just found his purpose in life, swinging the rose up. He hoped to God and the Man Jesus that this thing was supposed to be a weapon.

A blunt part of the rose struck the Captain beneath his chin. Jack saw the look of mingled surprise and horror on his face before the Captain fell to the ground.

"Ah! Little brat!" John drew a spare sword from his horse and dismounted. Brandishing his weapon, he charged towards Jack. Jack felt a moment, if even, of fear before he was ready to Rock N' Roll. He held the rose horizontally in front of him with two hands; one below the 'bud' and the other at the bottom. Right before John's sword would have split his skull, he raised the rose up above his head, and the sword crashed into that instead.

Jack looked at the part where the sword had hit. _'Not a scratch,'_ he thought. He nailed the blunt end of the rose into John's stomach, and John went sprawling. He raised the rose to fight the last soldier, but he had already dropped his weapon and looked scared.

"Go on, get out of here," Jack said. He then walked over to Carol's limp body.

Jack walked over to Carol's body, completely forgetting about the rose. He dropped it about ten feet away from her and started running. He got over to her in less than two seconds.

Jack almost gagged. She was bleeding in two places on her head, and her shirt was in tatters. At least her skirt was on.

"Shit, what am I going to do?" Jack said to himself. Behind him, the Captain was getting up and rubbing his chin.

"Oh, shit!" the Captain remembered what was going on, and saw the rose on the ground near him. His mind took a second to register this, but then he got up and ran over to the rose. He picked it up and held it like a broadsword.

"Little punk, you should never put your weapon down in a fight! N-" the Captain was cut off when the rose vanished from his hand and turned back into a sword in a flash of light. "What?"

There was another flash of light, and the rose reappeared in Jack's hand.

"What the hell?"

Jack held the rose out. "Get out of here."

"Fuck you, punk," the Captain snarled. He had never been spoken to before, except by that infernal wizard. "I have a sword and you have a big flower. I think I have a better chance of winning."

With that the Captain charged at Jack.

"Ah!" Jack grunted and got ready to block. He turned his head around and closed his eyes. When the Captain was about ten feet from Jack, time stopped.

"W-what?" Jack opened his eyes. Nothing was moving, the Captain, Carol, or his soldiers. Not even a blade of grass was rippling in the wind.

"Hello, Jack."

"Who's there?" Jack screamed. He turned around frantically, searching for the origin of the voice.

"A friend. I'm sorry to interrupt this, but I wanted to meet you at least once before it's time."

"Time? Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Do you want my name, or who I am?"

"Your fucking name AND who you are! Just show yourself!" Jack screamed at nothing.

"Very well. My name, is Sugo."

"What the hell kind of a name is Sugo?"

"It's MY NAME, young one. Now, I want you to listen well. There are things going on in this realm that nobody has ever imagined, not even in their worse nightmares. Those creatures that attacked you, the Despairs-"

"Oh, that's right! They just disappeared. Did you make them go away?" Jack asked.

"No. They fear the Roses. When they felt its presence they left," Sugo answered.

"Where did they come from?" Jack asked.

"Didn't the Captain tell you? After all, in a story such as yours, there is always a stupid villain who gives away all of his plans and secrets. The Captain and his Brute Tre are the stupid villains in your story."

"My story. Right. Okay, then, nice to meet you Sugo, and goodbye. So, if you could just please unfreeze everything?"

"Very well. But you do not understand. One boy alone cannot plant the seed."

"Are you some kind of nutcase?" Jack asked. He wasn't afraid of Sugo.

"Foolish boy. You will never understand," came a low, monotonous, emotionless voice from the shadows.

"What are you doing here? This is my world. Go back to Chicaga, or wherever you were assigned," Sugo snarled.

"I am here on account of our boss, Sugo. He wants you to return to the Fortress immediately," the Voice rambled.

"Very well. Jack, you might want to move somewhere, like behind the troublesome Captain. You know, confuse him a little. Time will revert back in about thirty seconds," Sugo said.

"Wait, don't go! Who are you?" Jack screamed. There was no reply. Jack sighed and walked behind where the captain was "running." Somehow, just sneaking up on him was just not a good idea.

Thirty seconds later, the Captain burst back to life as if nothing had happened. He went two feet and then his pants came off, and he tripped on his shoes, which had been tied together. He got up and swung around, but Jack and Carol were gone.

"FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!"

Jack raced across old Jack Daniels' fields, with Carol in his arms and the Rose lying on top of her. Twice he almost dropped the Rose, and once he almost dropped Carol. Jack Daniels' field was full of potholes. Coincidentally, his field was not only full of potholes, but it was also full of pot.

"FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!"

Jack heard the Captain yelling from behind him. He took that as a signal to run faster. Gasping for breath, he flew over the marijuana fields like a bird.

_Bang!_ Jack heard a gunshot from behind him.

"Shit!" Jack fell to the floor, still holding Carol and the Rose in his arms. Old Jack Daniels came out of his house holding a shotgun and looking like an angry bitch.

"Get up, ye kid! I saw you! Get the hell off a' my property!" he shouted in Jack's direction.

Jack got up. He left Carol and the Rose on the ground, however. He held his hands up.

"What in the name of tarnation are you doin' on my fields?"

Jack knew about Old Man Daniels. He hated the government more than anything. The whole village could hear him shouting at tax collectors every Monday.

"I'm running from the soldiers, sir," Jack said, keeping calm. "The Brute Tre are chasing me around the village for no reason."

"Brute Tre! Fuckin' bastards! Pickin' on the youth of today! C'mon, kid, me and you will show the fools who's the law in these parts!" Daniels pumped his shotgun and shot it up in the air. He took a shell out of the pockets of his overalls and loaded it. He then pumped again.

"Um, maybe if we could just-" Jack started, but he was cut off by the Captain, and John, one of the deputies, running across the field.

"You goddamn bastards! You're tramplin' on my crop!" Daniels shot the shotgun at them. It exploded near where the Captain was running. Daniels gave a roar of anger and reloaded. He then shot again. This time it hit the Captain's sword out of his hand.

"Dammit, he's got a gun. John, let's get out of here," the Captain said. "I'll be back for you, boy!"

They left. Jack took a look at Old Man Daniels. Jack judged he was about six feet one, maybe two, and weighed in at about 150. He was very lanky, and wore nothing except a pair of faded overalls and a straw hat. He had a scraggly beard and was chewing on a hayseed. His eyes seemed dead, at least compared to most other people.

"Next time you see those culls, give 'em this for me," Daniels said. He then shot another shell into the air. With that, he walked back inside his house. Jack walked back to where Carol was, and the Rose used to be.

"Where did it go?" Jack cried frantically. "Where did the fucking Rose go?" He searched around. After a few minutes, he sighed and let it go. Hell, he had probably imagined it anyways.

"At least you're still here," he said to himself. He thought about how lucky he was to come upon the Brute Tre before they could have their way with Carol. Shit, they both were lucky.

Jack looked at her. Then he crawled over to her body and shook her shoulder.

"Wake up, c'mon girl. I can't carry you much longer..."

There was another flash of light, and the Rose was back in his hand.

Jack approached Carol's street. By now, he was starting to notice her waking up. He decided to stop so he could rest and she could collect herself. He was still shaking from when the Rose had disappeared and then reappeared. Why? Where had it gone? And why did it come back?

Jack stopped by the edge of the road and lay Carol down. She was stirring already. Jack ran a hand through his short brown hair. He was sweating, which didn't surprise him; however, his heart was also beating regularly, which did surprise him. He had just ran almost two miles, carrying a human being. How the hell was he so calm, but so sweaty?

"Jack? Jack Brown?" Carol sat up.

"Hi, Carol. Thank God you're awake," Jack said. "What happened to you?"

"I-I don't know. I was about to go to sleep, and then-" Carol's eyes lit up. "Oh my God! My family!"

"What? What happened?"

"The Brute Tre! They came to my house because my dad is late on his taxes-"

"Aren't we all," Jack sighed. Carol ignored him and went on.

"They killed my mom and my sister, and they were going to rape me, and I don't know where my father is, and I-I-" she burst out crying, and threw herself in Jack's arms. "They're all dead," she sobbed. "All dead..."

Jack held her and let her cry it out. This took less time then he would have thought; after about ten minutes, she had stopped crying and stood up.

"What happened with you?" she asked. "Did you get into a fight with them?"

"Carol, tonight has been the single weirdest night of my life," Jack started. "The Captain, I don't know his name, he made me fight these-these THINGS, that just scared the shit out of me. Something weird is happening with the king; he's never sent the Tre to collect anyone's taxes before…and he's been holed up in his castle for the past few months. I feel like everything is about to change. C'mon, I'll take you to your house. Maybe your dad is there."

Carol nodded, then started crying again. "And I need a shirt," she said, and then let out a nervous laugh.

Jack forced a smile, then took his jacket off. "Here, wear this," he said and held it out to Carol. She put it on gratefully. Now, if somebody cared to look out of their window they wouldn't see her boobs.

"Thanks, Jack," and with that, they started walking towards the remains of her house, arms around each other as if they were together; and anyone looking out on them would think they were. On the way, Jack told Carol what had happened; how his father had mysteriously left the house in the middle of the night, and Jack went to see if he was at the Armory. On his way there, he had came upon the Brute Tre, and the rest is history.

They came upon the burned out ashes that were Carol's house.

"NO!" she shouted.

What they came upon was a burned wreck, plain and simple. In the ruins, the thing that had made Carol shout NO, were the burned remains of her sister and mother.

"They BURNED them! The fuckers burned them! No, no n-"

"Carol, listen. They're dead, it doesn't matter what state their corpses is in. But you're dad isn't with them. He's still alive, see?" Jack's excitement was rising. Maybe this was a quest in the making for him. Then his excitement dawdles. "We have to find him," he added lamely.

Carol sniffed. "Do you think we can? I mean, where would he have gone?" she asked.

"I don't know. But we have to start somewhere. Don't you want to see if the last member of your family member is alive?" Jack asked.

"It doesn't matter. Our family is broken. Even if my father is still alive, it'll never be the same."

"No, but it's better than nothing. Trust me." Jack remembered why he had left in the first place. "Oh, crap! My dad is gone too! Do you think it's connected?"

"Maybe," she said. Jack could see that she was still shaken, and decided not to bother her until she was better. He went about the burned remains of Carol's house, waiting. He saw a charred family portrait, and the dusty and blackened keys of a grand piano. He turned to go back to comfort his crush, but something caught his eye. A shotgun, presumably belonging to Carol's father, lay perfectly preserved where the wall used to be. He went towards it, kneeled, and was further dismayed to find several boxes of shells right next to it:

_**Shells of Gilead**_

_50 Shells_

_Manufactured by the Tet Corporation, in memory of the ka-tet of nineteen and ninety-nine _

the boxes read.

"What the hell?" Jack said under his breath. "Hey, Carol, I think your dad left us his shotgun."

"What?" she asked, and got up. She walked through the blackened remains of her house, pausing only slightly, to where Jack was kneeling. "My dad doesn't have a shotgun."

"Well, someone was here, and they left this. Who the hell..."

Carol turned away from him and got up. She had seen something else against the far wall, of which a part of still remained. She walked towards it, and saw a small piece of paper tacked up to the wall. The paper read:

_Dear Carol, I hope you enjoy the shotgun. I figured that since Jack has a weapon, you might as well get one. You might need it in your quest, anyways. I wish you both luck, for the trials that await you require a strong will, and an even stronger weapon. One more thing: your father yet lives. Look for him at the top floor of the Fortress. Sincerely yours, Sugo Bausch._

"Jack, come look at this!" Carol said. She was shaking. Someone had been here, in her house, and knew who she was and where her father was.

Jack walked over to her, holding the shotgun and the boxes of shells in his hands. She held the letter out to him and he took it. He read it over in about a minute, then lowered it. Carol could see the look of surprised horror on his face.

"Sugo," he said.

"Someone you know?"

"Well, I've met him," Jack said. "In a sense." Jack told her the part of his story he had left out before, about time freezing and Sugo talking to him. She listened intently, and when he finished, she said:

"Well, according to that, the shotgun is mine. Give it here," she said. Jack laughed and gave it and the shells to her.

"It's a nice shotgun," he told her. "A pump-action, not one of those single-shots."

She nodded. "It says that you have a weapon, too. What is it?"

"Oh, the Rose! Where did it go?"

Jack ran back "outside" frantically, searching for the Rose. When Carol had awakened, he had completely forgotten about it. "Wait a minute," he said. "I think I know what to do."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Quiet a minute," he said. He focused on the Rose with all of his mind, but nothing happened. _'Dammit, what was I thinking about back there?"_ He tried to remember, but couldn't. Thinking, he caught Carol's impatient expression, and then remembered.

There was a bright flash of white light, and the Rose appeared in Jack's hand.

"Ahh! Wow! How did you do that?" she asked. Despite of her recent tragedy, Jack could see the look of amazement on her pretty face. "It's so pretty! But how is it a weapon?"

"It's really sharp, and from what I've gathered, damn near indestructible," Jack shrugged. "It works, if that's what you're wondering."

"Where did you get it? Can we trade?" she asked.

"I don't know where I got it...it just kind of appeared in my hand when I was fighting the Brute Tre. Sure, I'd rather have a shotgun then a flower," he laughed. They traded, but after a second, the Rose disappeared from Carol's hands and reappeared in Jack's. Jack expected this, and gave Carol the shotgun back.

"Sorry. The same thing happened when the Captain stole it. I guess it only works for me," he said.

"Well, I guess it's okay-" she started, but was cut off by a gunshot.

"Shit!" Jack yelled. He grabbed Carol's shoulder and pulled her down with him. They hit the dirt at the same time, not daring to look up. Jack heard the bullets (were they bullets?) hit near him, and he rolled over. He looked at Carol and saw that she was loading the shotgun.

"You know how to use that, right?" he called to her.

"Yeah. My uncle is a mercenary," she called.

"On the count of three, get up and run back into the house. One...two...THREE!"

Jack leapt to his feet, and heard Carol do the same. He swung around in the direction of the shots, and saw a large cluster of men standing across the street, reloading what looked to be like rifles. He wasted no more time, and backpedaled back into the 'house.' He hid behind a piece of the wall, and saw Carol following suit on the other side. She had the shotgun ready to fire, and was muttering to herself. Jack got an idea and swung out of his cover.

"Hey, assholes! Over here!" he shouted. A shot hit the wall, not a foot away from him. Then another went past his ear, and one hit the rubble at his feet. He fell to the ground and played dead. His head was at an angle so that he could see Carol. She too had taken the bait, which was not good. He blinked rapidly at her, trying to convey that he was faking it, but she started to move towards him. Then she noticed his rapidly shuttering eyelids, and seemed to understand. He risked making a thumbs-up at her, and she smiled and took cover.

The shots stopped, and Jack could hear the men walking towards the house. Could even hear one of them, presumably the leader, talking: "You three, go in and confirm the kill."

Jack heard them, and dared move his head a little to see them. They didn't catch this, say thankya. They marched right over to where Jack lay, and began to kick him gently in the ribs. Jack lay still.

"What the hell? He's not bleeding?" one of them shouted.

"Die!" he heard Carol yell. Jack focused his mind on the thing that made the Rose appear, and then got up. The men whirled around at him, and Carol put one of them down easily. Jack swung the Rose into the side of one of them, and the man crumpled to the ground. One of them took out a small pistol, a five-shooting revolver, and pointed it at him. Before he could pull the trigger, his hand exploded in a shower of crimson, and the revolver fell to the ground. Jack caught it and pointed it at the rest of the men across the street. He fired all five shots in succession, not bothering to aim, and when the revolver was dry, he dropped it. Then he backpedaled to where Carol was standing.

"Nice shooting," he said to her.

"Thanks," she said; smiled, and blushed. Jack thought she looked beautiful when she smiled, and that made him smile too. Then he remembered the rest of the men and peeked out of their cover.

"They're gone!" he said. "Unless they're just tricking us," he added as an afterthought.

"I'll risk it. Maybe you killed the rest with that gun," she mused. "Did you even aim when you shot it?"

"Nope. I've only shot a gun once before in my life, so I didn't really know what I was doing. Alright, let's get out of here. I don't know what's going on, but I'm getting the creeps here."

They started to walk away, but before they could, time stopped again.

Carol screamed, for this time it was she who had not frozen. She looked around, saw Jack's frozen face, saw everything frozen, and screamed again.

"What happened?" Then she remembered Jack saying that this had happened to him too, and that was when Sugo, who had left her the shotgun, had spoken to him. "Is anyone there?" she asked.

"Carol! Can you hear me?"

"Father?" she shouted incredulously. "Where are you?"

"I'm being held captive in a room somewhere! I need you to rescue me! Please, Carol, find me! They say they'll kill me!"

"Where are you? How did you get there?"

"I went to get help after they took you, from the Fever," her father's voice said. Carol looked at Jack in amazement. There was a loose end tied up. "He said he'd go change the Brute Tre's minds, and he told me to wait by the house. I went there, but on the way, everything just seemed to...I don't know, stop. And a voice told me that I was being taken to the Fortress until my daughter came to rescue me." He paused. "And then I woke up here," he finished simply.

"I can't rescue you if I don't know where you are! What do you want?"

"I don't know...Carol, listen. If I never see you again, I want you to know that I love you. I don't want you to risk your life trying to find me. But, there is something I would have you do."

"Anything!" Carol cried.

"There is something wrong with the king. He's...different. I fear the kingdom may be heading to doom. Please, you must try to do something about it."

"How are you talking to me?"

"The people are letting me. They want you to come here. SO LISTEN TO YOU'RE FATHER, AND STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THE FORTRESS! No, get away from me-"

Her father screamed. Then, nothing.

"Dad..." she looked up. Now what? What if time just stayed frozen forever? What was she supposed to do then?

But her fears were unfounded, because after a few seconds Jack sprang-for that was the only word for it-back to life.

He walked a few steps, then stopped and turned towards her. "Coming?" he asked.

"Jack...something just happened. I-"

And Carol told Jack of what had just transpired. Jack nodded in silent horror the whole time, listening intently.

"Dammit, that feels so _weird!_ To me it feels like nothing happened! To think that you had a whole conversation while I was walking is just..."

"Eerie," she finished for him.

"Well, let's not just stand here talking about it. Clearly your dad wants us to do something for him. You up for a little quest?"

"Okay, but before we do anything, we need to find out if the rest of those men ran away or if they're just hiding."

"Seconded," Jack said. "But where could they hide?"

Carol put a finger to her lips. She raised the shotgun and pointed it at a group of bushes in the neighbor's yard, and pulled the trigger. The gun exploded, and Carol fell back a step from the recoil. Jack hadn't noticed before just how loud it was.

But there was another noise, following after. A muffled thump.

"There are our freinds," Jack said. "Finish the rest of your shots in there; flush 'em out!"

Three more deafening shots. Jack covered one of his ears with one hand, and one of Carol's with his other. He had figured out that he could make the Rose disappear whenever he wanted also. How he did it he didn't know. There was a shout from behind the bush, and five men jumped out of it and ran at them. Jack could see that they all had strange swords drawn, and were trailing them behind them in one hand. Their hair was tied back in buns, and they wore strange robes; and sandals instead of shoes.

"Who the hell are they?" Jack said, and thought of the thing that he needed to think of to summon the Rose. It appeared in his hand, and he readied it. He looked back at Carol and saw she was fumbling with the shotgun, trying to reload it. "Hurry!" he shouted, and charged.

Jack ran with the speed of the winds at the strange men with the robes. When he got closer he could tell some of the features of them. Their skin was either very tanned, or it was naturally just darker than his. When he was about ten feet from the one in front, he leapt into the air. He could hear Carol behind him. Good. He had some cover.

He landed right in front of the one in front, and brought the Rose down hard on his head. He could see the man's blue robe splattered with scarlet, and all of his emotions except rage were brought down to a complete zero. He raised the Rose again, and jumped at the next blue-robed warrior, and swung it down. This one blocked it, however, with his sword. Then he swiped it at Jack, cutting his shirt. Then he stabbed at Jack, missing by less than an inch. _Damn,_ he was fast! Jack jumped back and redoubled his strategy. He swiped back at the warrior once, twice, thrice, and more. The man blocked each one. Then, after what seemed like the millionth time (actually it was the seventeenth) another blue-robed warrior jumped in and violently slashed at Jack. Jack stopped swiping at the first one to block the second, and the first got another stab in. Jack dodged it, never keeping his eyes off of the other.

Make it double!

Two more joined in. They had Jack completely surrounded, and they prepared to all stab him at once. Not knowing what else to do, he jumped.

The four warriors, Carol, and even Jack gasped as Jack jumped almost ten feet in the air, easily dodging their stabs. Then Carol remembered what was going on, and shot at the four remaining blue-robed warriors. Two of them went down, but the other two scattered. She aimed at one of them, and shot him dead. She was not so lucky with the other, however; for while she was distracted he went to her and kicked her in the side of the head. By this time Jack had landed, and was running at the final warrior. He got to him as he was picking Carol up, and kicked him. The man stumbled, but did not fall, and Jack brought the Rose down on his head. He crumpled to the ground.

"You okay?" he asked Carol, who was rubbing her head.

"I think so..."

There was a click of a pistol or rifle, and a gruff voice with a rough accent said, "Get up."

Carol looked up and saw another one of the dark-skinned men. This one, he noticed, did not have a blue robe. His robe was made of a flowing gold material. Definitely not silk, or cloth, or cotton. Something else entirely, for it shined with the intensity of a brightly polished gold. His sword, while it was strangely shaped, was sheathed, but she could see that it had a golden handle, adorned with decorations of what appeared to be some sort of serpent. Also, his hair was not pulled back into a bun, but the man was bald. Behind him were a large assortment of men in strange wooden armor. They held rifles in their hands, trained on her.

"Get away!" Jack shouted.

"W-where did you all come from?" Carol asked in astonishment.

"The woods," the man said in his strange accent. It sounded like the _wuds._ "Now get up and come with us."

Carol started to get up.

"Carol, no-"

"I have to, Jack." she got up and started to walk over to the man with the golden robe. Before she got to him, she jumped back a step and picked up the shotgun. She aimed right at the man with the golden robe, and pulled the trigger.

There was a deafening roar. Once the smoke cleared, Jack looked at the man in the golden robe, but the man stood there as if nothing had happened.

"Nice try. Now, come!" The man leapt at Carol, drawing his sword with a speed that Jack never could have fathomed. Jack had to act fast, too. He ran towards Carol, skidding to a halt in front of her not two seconds before the golden-robed warrior would have killed her. Jack swung the Rose into him, but the man was so goddamned fast! His sword, a second ago raised high above his head, now was horizontally across the man's body. The Rose clanged off of it, and the man raised the sword again in the blink of an eye. The blunt end swung into Jack's head, and Jack was knocked back, out of reach of Carol. He got up, blinked blood out of his eyes, and heard Carol scream.

"Get off of me, you fucking pervert freak!" she was saying. She kicked and screamed and punched at the man, but he seemed to not feel it. The man said something in another language to his soldiers, and one of them ran out and collected Carol's shotgun.

"No, put her down!" Jack tried to shout, but it came out barely over a whisper.

A voice came from somewhere behind Jack. It's owner sounded hurt.

"Wait! Take, wait! I'm still alive!"

Jack turned his head to see this new player. It was another one of the strange foreigners, this one in a green robe. He was clutching his side, and Jack could see some (not a whole lot) of blood staining the robe. His sword was not quite as nice as the gold man's was, and neither was his robe. It _was_ glowing, however, signaling that it was at least made of the same material. The man walked over to Jack, and drew his sword.

The man took his hand off of his side, and clutched the handle of his sword with both hands. He held it so that it was face-down, the point facing Jack. Not a moment before he brought it down, the golden-robed man shouted, "Wait!"

The green-robed man stopped and looked at the gold-robed man. "Take, what is it?"

"I'm sorry, Nomu. My orders are to leave everyone who's injured behind. I really want to kill you, for I've always hated you, but I'm going to show you mercy and let you commit seppuku. Do it now, and leave the brat alone. Storm said not to kill him."

"Take...?" the green-robed man said to Take.

"Kill yourself now, you worthless piece of shit. The Dragonclan has no need for fools like you."

"N-no! My family!"

"If you do it right now, I might let your family live. Now, you worthless fucking piece of rat shit!"

The green-robed man raised a shaky hand and grasped the sword over Jack again. He started to bring it down on his stomach, but before he did, he moved it a little to the right, and it went behind him. Then he swung it around and held it out in a battle stance against the rest of his former comrades.

"You fool. You can't beat even me, let alone all of us! Now, you kill yourself, or I'll kill you and your entire family!"

"Fuck you," Nomu said. Take laughed at this. Then he drew his sword, and motioned behind him. The rest of his warriors put down their rifles and drew swords. "Still want to fight?"

"I can kill you all alone! You don't scare me, Take!"

"You won't have to do it alone," Jack said, getting to his feet. "Release Carol, and maybe I won't kill you all."

"Ha ha haaa..." _Snap!_ Take snapped his fingers.

Several black clouds appeared around them, and out stepped...

"Despairs. Enjoy!" Take snapped his fingers again, and him and the rest of his men vanished.

Jack and Nomu were completely surrounded. The Despairs stared at them with an intensity that Jack found surprising. He averted his eyes so as not to look into theirs.

"Don't look into their eyes," the green-robed man, Nomu, whispered. "Good luck."

"What do you mean, good luck? You're in the exact same position I'm in!"

"No, my child. I have been disgraced. I must die, or my family will suffer for my failures. If you survive, please, kill Take for me!" Nomu raised his sword over himself, and started to plunge it down into his stomach.

"NO!" Jack shouted. He summoned the Rose and swung it at Nomu. The Rose struck Nomu's sword, and the sword went far off course. It hit a leaping Despair in the head, and cut it clean off. Jack thought the Despair would fall to the ground, but it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"What the hell?" Jack said to himself.

"No! You fool!"

The Despairs leapt all over Jack and Nomu. Jack was ready for them and was able to parry four or five of the leaping monsters, but Nomu was not so lucky; perhaps it was because he wasn't ready, or perhaps it was because of his injury, but either way, he was only able to slash one Despair out of the air before the rest of them tackled him to the ground. Nomu struggled wildly as the crawling beasts scuttled all over him, biting and scratching.

"Hold on!" Jack shouted. He started over to Nomu. As he did, one of the Despairs seemed to decide that Jack would be more interesting to kill then Nomu, and it jumped at Jack. Jack jumped up at the Despair, and the two met in midair. The Despair pointed its large-horned head at Jack. Jack started to swing the Rose at the Despair from below him, but the Despair somehow propelled itself at Jack, and Jack was barely able to avoid being gored through the chest; instead it cut through his left arm. Jack and the Despair fell to the ground, and Jack felt the horn slip smoothly out of his arm.

"AAH! Fuck!" Jack raised the Rose in his right hand and brought it down hard on the Despair. Again, and again and again he hit the thing. Finally it disappeared in the little cloud of black smoke and Jack could focus on saving Nomu. He started again towards him, but a sharp pain in his arm made him stop. He collapsed to the ground and dropped the Rose. His arm was on fire, every nerve felt like it was being ripped out. There must have been something poisonous in that horn, there was no way being stabbed could feel like this. He wanted it to end; contemplated cutting his arm off so that it wouldn't hurt so much.

_'No,'_ he thought. _'I can't! They took Carol! I need to help her! And I need him to do it...'_

Jack pulled himself up again, and ran towards where Nomu was still grappling with half a dozen Despairs.

Jack rushed the crumpled mass of bodies that was Nomu and about six Despairs. He ran with the Rose gripped in his right hand, trailing it slightly, at his side. His other arm still suffered from a very recent injury, and he held it close to his stomach, trying to ignore the stabbing pain. He jumped over a rut in the road, and finally he was there!

Jack started to swing the Rose at the Despairs, but then his eye caught something on the "bud" of the Rose. The edges curved out slightly, so it sort of resembled a bell, but the edges were fucking _sharp._ That was how he was supposed to kill with this thing, not by bashing people on the head like a lunatic. Jack angled the Rose differently, and swung it at the swarming Despairs. There was another cloud of black smoke, and the Despairs were reduced to five. They scattered from Nomu and started to swarm Jack. Holding the Rose in one hand (he was still amazed at how light it was) he swung it left, then right. The two Despairs disappeared, the black smoke accompanying them, and the other three jumped back a step. Jack held the Rose by his side, ready to attack. He did a little half-hearted swing at one of the Despairs, just to freak it out. The thing jumped back again, and Jack could not help but giggle at how scared the thing looked. Behind the fools, Jack was surprised to see Nomu getting up; was further surprised to see that he was barely harmed. Jack caught his eye, and they both nodded.

"Die, motherfuckers!" Jack yelled, and leapt at the Despairs. Nomu did the same, but without the battle cry.

Jack landed right in front of one; caught it by surprise, and took it out with a crushing slash. He swung around to see Nomu kill the other two with an uncanny speed; the two separate black clouds seemed to appear simultaneously. Nomu sheathed his sword and approached Jack.

"You saved my life..."

"You're welcome. Please, I need your help. Where is Take taking Carol?"

"I know not; but I know where Take is going after. We'll just have to question him."

"Wait, you're helping me now? I thought you were gonna kill yourself," Jack said, genuinely surprised.

"Where I come from, if someone saves your life, you are eternally indebted to them. I must help you on your quest, 'till either death takes me or you dismiss me." Nomu bowed his head, drew his sword, and lay it flat upon his palms.

"Um...okay then. Where is Take going and how do we get there?"

"Back to my world. He's going to sell her to this man who appeared in our land some days ago."

"Sell her? What's his name?" Jack screamed.

"Soh, I know not. I just know that he is somewhere in my world, and we have to act fast to save your girlfriend."

"Um, thanks, but she's not my girlfriend. I just-"

"Sure." Nomu rolled his eyes.

"I don't understand? You're world? What does that mean?" Jack asked.

"Sit down, Jack of Bryn. I expect there is much that you do not know."

Jack and Nomu sat down to palaver.

Once there was a time when the worlds were whole; where everybody knew everybody, and peace was the only government. This land was appropriately called the Land of Peace. It was inhabited by eight very large families; each named after their respected family crest: they were called the Clans of the Red, Pink, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple, White, and Burgundy Roses. These families lived for a while in peace, but then all of that changed with the coming of the Clan of the Black Rose. The clans were all thrown into chaos, for with the Black Rose, war and destruction also came. People were slaughtered by the hundreds by the powerful leader of the Black Rose. This man's name was Randall Fagg. He still lives as the Lord of the Fortress, but he is called by his followers The Maker. He slaughtered the warriors of each clan in search for their respective Roses. The clan leaders tried to fight back, but Fagg killed the leader of the Clan of the Pink Rose, whose name has been lost, and took that Rose. His power nearly doubled, and the others gave up. They fled to all corners of the world and used their powers to separate the worlds, so that the Black Rose could not taint all of them. The Roses were then hidden in each of the worlds; and in time some of the weaker ones split into a few different Roses. Every time a Rose split, a world did with it. Today Fagg still tries to eliminate everyone who wields a Rose; for if all of the Roses are collected then they can be re-formed into the fabled Golden Rose.

After the Rose Leaders escaped, Fagg's anger was so intense that from the Black Rose sprouted first the Despairs, Angsts, and Doubts; then the Panics, Lusts, Guilts and Greifs, and Ennui; next came Rages and Wraths, Fears, Depressions, Emptinesses, Shames and Sufferings; and finally, The Horrors. Fagg found that he could use them to do his bidding, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had an uncanny connection to the rest of the Roses. Now he uses them to find them; and to kill his enemies. He religiously sits on his throne, clutching the Black Rose to him like a baby.

"That's quite a story," Jack said. "It's true? I mean, are there really more Roses than this one?"

"Correct. And they are all found in different worlds."

"How do we get to these other worlds?" Jack asked.

"There are certain doorways in each world, and we must cross through the corridors between doors. It's dangerous; we were attacked on the way to this world by those creatures. It's also hard to get to the exact world you need." Nomu sighed.

"Well, I guess we'd better go then. Where is this door?"

"In the outskirts of this town. Not too far."

"Alright," Jack said. "Let's go."

"You have no family? Nobody to say goodbye to?"

"I do, but..."

"Well?" Nomu asked.

"Carol is so much more important then that...besides, my only family here is my father and my twin sister."

"No friends?" Nomu asked.

_'Persistent sonofabitch'_ Jack thought. "Raz. But there's no time...he's probably at home, asleep. Besides, I'll be back, right?"

"Probably. This world is the Magnum Opus, and if you hope to defeat The Maker then you'll have to."

"Right now I just want to find Carol…"

"So you love her?" Nomu asked. "Is it her you think of to summon the Rose?"

"How did you-"

"Each Rose is symbolic of a certain emotion or feeling; the Red one is love."

"I see...what's the Magnum Opus?" Jack asked.

"This world connects to the Nonexistant Plain; where The Fortress is. Seventeen miles from yon hills." Nomu gestured at the mountains in the distance.

"Okay. Let's go..."

Jack and Nomu walked in silence towards the outskirts. There were few people here; and the ones that did live here were all asleep anyways. Finally Nomu stopped at a large boulder. There was nothing special about it to Jack, but Nomu tapped it with his sword and an emblem of a Rose appeared on it, glowing red.

"How come your sword can hurt the Despairs? Before I had the Rose I used a sword on them and nothing happened."

"My sword is forged out of the same material as the Roses. It's a very rare substance called Metallica."

"Is the Black Rose made out of Metallica?" Jack was curious.

"Jack of Bryn, I know not. Come now, grasp my hand and leap into the boulder."

Jack gripped Nomu's hand, shut his eyes tight and leapt.

For a second, everything went black, even when Jack opened his eyes. Then he found himself on a platform, hurling through endless space. Around him, darkness. Jack got up and surveyed his platform. It was probably about thirty yards in diameter; he could see Nomu getting up about ten feet away from him.

"Get your weapon ready! Here come the Despairs!"

Jack thought about Carol, and the Red Rose appeared in his hand; for a second, the space outside of the platform was illuminated, and Jack could see thousands of dark creatures (he assumed they were the other 'emotions' from Nomu's story) scuttling around.

"Ah! What the hell?"

"Fear not, Jack! Most of them will stay away; when I went before only the Despairs attacked us."

Jack nodded and walked towards the center of the platform. He eyed Nomu expectantly, and when nothing happened after a few seconds, Jack asked, "Well?"

"Just wait...they should notice us in a few seconds."

Jack waited...and waited...and waited some more. Finally, after what seemed like hours (but was really only about five minutes) Jack could see a skinny black leg appear on one side of the platform.

"Nomu-"

"I see it," Nomu said. He drew his sword.

In the next second, the amount of Despairs on the platform went from one to about fifty, and more kept coming.

"Go!" Nomu shouted. Without hesitation, Jack ran forward to the Despairs, careful not to look into their eyes. When he was about ten feet away, they all started to run towards him. Jack flinched for a second, collected himself, and leapt at them. He landed squarely behind all of them, swung around, and swung the Rose into the nearest one. Black cloud. Jack didn't notice it this time, because by the time the first one was gone, his vision was clouded by many, many more. He swung right and left, killing (was it killing?) Despairs as he charged forward through them. Finally they started to attack him. Jack blocked a jumping one to his right, and quickly counterattacked. Three more leapt at him; he parried the first two and leapt into the air to dodge the third. Up and up he went, probably almost twenty feet. At the top he held the Rose face-down and fell.

Jack landed and plunged the Rose into the ground. Large beams of light erupted from the point where the Rose struck the ground, and whenever a Despair wandered into it; or when the light happened to strike one, the Despair was instantly killed.

"Woah. Glad that worked," Jack said aloud. There were only a few Despairs left. Using his legs, Jack propelled himself at the nearest Despair, holding the Rose out in front of him. It went through the Despair, creating another cloud of black smoke that quickly dissipated. Three left! Jack jumped at one of them, not too high this time, and landed in front of the thing; he brought the Rose down upon it as he did. He swung around and slashed one that had jumped him behind his back, and then turned to face the last one. As he did, however, Nomu charged right through it, holding his sword out in front of him like a spear. He went right through the black cloud, too. Jack looked around, and saw the remaining Despairs on the other side of the platform retreating from it.

"Excellent fighting, Jack. Come now, we should be able to pass to my world."

Nomu lead Jack back to the center of the platform. He then turned in a certain direction, and instructed Jack to do the same.

"Jack, picture if you will a green valley, surrounded by elegant forests. In the center of this valley is a bustling town with huts made of bamboo. Do you know what bamboo is?"

"I think so, but where I come from we call it hollowood."

"Fine, fine. Close your eyes, and do this."

Jack did so, and found it was quite easy.

"This is where we are going, so be prepared. It should be somewhere around here..."

"Around where?" Jack asked.

Jack started, for when he looked up the platform was ringed with doors. They were all white, and had handles instead of doorknobs. He couldn't see what was on the other side. Jack looked closer at them and saw that each one had a small image engraved above the handles. This particular one had an image of several islands. He looked at the one next to it. The image was of a long hallway. This one was moving, however; there were flashing lights on the walls of the hallway.

"Nomu, come look at this!" Jack called.

"Why?"

"It has lights…real ones!"

"I've seen it already. Look for the place I described to you…never mind, here it is."

Nomu raised his sword and held it up to the door. While he was doing this, he was unfortunate enough not to notice a Despair creeping up behind him. Jack watched as Nomu's sword began to glow white, and the engravement of the valley gained a white outline. The Despair leapt at Nomu, and Nomu's sword swung around the opposite way. Now it pointed at the door with the islands.

"NO!" Nomu shouted.

There was a flash of light, and they were gone.

Jack looked up and spit sand out of his mouth. Nomu was lying next to him, and beside _him..._

"That goddamn, motherfucking, PEICE OF SHIT DESPAIR!" Jack got to his feet and seized the Despair in his hands, but the thing slipped out easily. Jack summoned the Rose and whacked the thing on the head. The Despair screeched and tried to run away, but Jack hit it so hard with the blunt part of the Rose that it fainted. Behind him, Nomu was getting up.

"This is definitely not my world," Nomu said, shaking his head.

"Well, let's just go back into the rock, and go to yours."

"It's not that simple..." Nomu said. "We need to find the Rose of this world..."

"We do? Wait, does that mean that you guys found the Rose to your world?" Jack asked.

"Our shogun has it. He says that he is holding it for its rightful wielder, but that's a lie. Everyone knows he's trying to find a way to wield it himself so that he can conquer other lands. When we get there, I'd like you to take it from him."

"Okay, I guess..." Jack said, nervous about stealing from a shogun. "Which one is it?"

"Yellow," Nomu said. "It stands for platonic love. So you may have to think of your father or sister to summon it."

Jack nodded. "First we have to figure out where we are," Jack sighed. "I think I hear some noise coming from that way. You wanna check it out?"

"Might as well. It's as good a start as any," Nomu said. Together they walked towards the lush palm forest about a block away from them. When they were halfway there, they could hear several pops, and then they were surrounded by...

"More Despairs?" Jack shouted.

"These ones are different, slightly...look!"

Jack looked, and saw that Nomu was right. Instead of black, these ones were very, very dark green. Their horns were brown, and had small palm leaves coming out of them. They were also wearing a strange armor (maybe it was scales, or something of the sort) on their shoulders, that was made out of...

"Coconut shells! They're wearing coconut shells!" Nomu said.

"Well, they're still Despairs, so they still need killing," Jack said. He held the Rose ready, and charged forward, Nomu at his side.

Jack ran into the Despair head-on, and upper slashed the bastard through the torso. It disappeared in a cloud of dark green smoke this time. He swung around and parried two that were leaping at him; then he jumped forward and killed another.

Nomu, meanwhile, was a little more graceful. He waited for a few Despairs to come to him and for them to attack. He drew his sword, lightning-quick as always, and cut two of them down before they could even get close. The other propelled itself at him, and Nomu parried it up in the air and threw his sword through it. He then leapt up, caught his sword, and landed gracefully behind the remaining Despairs. He whipped around and slashed through three of them in a single, graceful move. There was only one left. He ran towards it, feigned a slash, and then leapt up in the air. He landed right on top of the thing, and brought the sword down on it.

Nomu looked up and saw Jack fighting the last Despair. He killed it with ease, then made the Rose disappear. Nomu walked towards him.

"Good fighting, Jack. Come, let us proceed." Nomu said.

Jack nodded. "Okay."

Together they walked through the jungle. They could both hear a noise coming from the direction they were going towards, and when they could distinguish human noises, they started to run. Finally, they burst through and came upon a large town, complete with bamboo huts, streets, what looked like sewer grates, a marketplace, what appeared to be a city hall, and a barracks.

"Wow..." Jack said.

Jack and Nomu were startled when they heard a bell ringing. "Outsiders!" they heard a voice yell; and suddenly they were surrounded by large men wearing bamboo shoulder guards (they reminded Jack of the ones the Despairs were currently wearing) and toting large bamboo spears and wooden shields.

"Speak you the common tongue?" the nearest one, who was about a foot taller then the rest and looked especially fearsome, asked.

"Yes," Nomu spoke up. "Jack, let me do the talking."

"What is your name, and where are you from?" the tall one asked.

"My name is Nomu of Japan, son of Kurosawa. We come in peace, we assure you. We are on a sacred quest."

"Sacred? I will be the judge of that. What quest would this be?"

This time Jack spoke up. "We come from another world, and we seek the Roses!" With this, he thought of his missing love, and the Rose appeared in his hand with a flash of light. The soldiers shielded their eyes, then look with awe at the Rose.

"N-no! It can't be! Men, attack!" the tall one commanded.

Jack readied the Rose and Nomu drew his sword, but nothing happened.

"What is wrong with you? Kill them!"

"No, captain. They have the Rose! This one must be the Messiah from the prophecy! We have to help him!"

"He's dangerous! Kill him!" the tall one commanded, louder. People behind them were coming out to look at the commotion. When none of his men attacked, the captain said: "Fine, I'll kill them myself!"

The captain rushed forward, holding his spear out in front of him, blocking his head with his shield. Jack got ready to fight, but before he got the chance Nomu ran into the captain and booted his spear out of his hand. He lightly slashed the captain across both of his cheeks, kicked him to the ground, and held his sword in front of his face.

"Leave him to us, sai. You must come to our town hall," one of the soldiers said. Three more soldiers came and grabbed the captain around the arms, and hauled him off towards the barracks. "Welcome to Paradise Islands," the soldier said. "I'm Captain Iz."

"I'm Jack Brown," Jack said.

"And you're Nomu, right?" Iz asked. Nomu nodded, and Iz continued. "Normally we're very peaceful, but since the Emos came, we needed defense."

"Emos?" Jack asked.

"The Emotions. Despairs, Rages, Wraths, etcetera. As the Rose Carrier, you must know of them."

"I've fought the Despairs, and I've heard of the rest." Jack said.

"You have Metallica?" Nomu asked incredulously.

"Yep, and lots of it. One of our islands, which we aptly named Metallisland, has a whole mine of them. Our spears are tipped with them." the new captain said.

"Excellent. You said something about a prophecy?" Nomu asked.

"Ah, yes! There's a stone in a certain cave on the Isle of Prosperity. It is covered in runes, which our shaman has recently translated. It translates to: 'Roses are Green, violets are blue, the ocean is calm, unlike you.' Any idea what it means?"

"I think so," Nomu said. "In the meantime, do you know where we can find the Green Rose? It would appear that it is here, in this world."

"Well...no. But there is one island..." Iz paused.

"Yes?" Jack asked impatiently.

"Nobody has gone on it for centuries...since the Splitting."

"You mean when the worlds split, or when the Roses split, or both?" Jack asked.

"Hush, Jack," Nomu said. He twirled his right hand in an impatient, go-on, hurry up, gesture.

"Both," Iz said. "Anyways, people say that it's haunted. I think that it's infested by the Emos. Well, we know every other island front to back, so it must be there."

"Then that is where we must go," Nomu said.

Nomu through another of the large pouches into the small boat. Jack was already piled into the boat and was waiting impatiently for Nomu and Iz to get in. Finally, Iz got in, and Nomu right after him.

"Finally!" Jack sighed. "What's in the sacks?"

"That's for me to know," Iz said. "And you to maybe find out."

"I hate it when people do that," Jack said. "So, what's this island called?"

"The Isla de Muerta," Iz said. "We've got sort of a long boat trip ahead of us, so bear with me."

And they set off in complete silence, and in silence they went the whole way. It took about an hour of just sitting and taking turns rowing. They passed numerous other islands, and Iz pointed out which ones were which. All of the islands had names like, "Serenity Isle, Passion Cove, Grace Beach," etcetera. Finally, after Jack's arms felt like falling off, Iz said, "Yon island is the Isla de Muerta," and gestured to an island in the near distance. Nomu took over the rowing, and they made it in less than ten minutes. The three of them stepped out onto the beach. It was covered in stones and shells, and about fifty feet up there was another palm jungle. The beach curved around the island to the left and right, nothing to see there.

"Where to?" Nomu asked.

"Straight ahead," Iz replied. Jack and Nomu nodded, and walked forward. When they got right up to the edge of the jungle they heard a low moan.

"What the hell is that?" Jack screamed.

"I don't know...but it worries me. Have your weapons ready." Iz walked in front of them, brandishing his spear.

_Meanwhile..._

"Dammit...this sucks! No way I'm going to get displaced by the fucking little runt and his bastard friend...got to get out of here..." the former captain said from inside his jail cell.

"Is that what you need?" spoke a voice from the corner. "Because I can help you with that."

"Who's there?" the former captain (who will hereon be referred to as Yinez, for that is his name) shouted.

"You're name is Yinez, is it not?" the voice asked.

"Come out! I'll kill you! Guards!"

"They can't hear you. More like, they're frozen in time," the voice said with a chuckle.

"Frozen? Who are you?" Yinez asked into the dark corner of his cell.

"My name is Sugo, and I can help you kill the brat with the Rose."

Jack, Nomu and Iz crashed through the jungle, using their respective weapons to cut through branches and leaves. Finally, they came to a clearing, and Iz said, "We'll rest here a minute."

"Thank the Man Jesus!" Jack shouted. He sat down on top of a rock and made the Rose vanish. Nomu sheathed his sword, and did the same. Iz, however, who was holding all of the sacks, opened one and withdrew a smaller pouch. Inside was a small black powder, which Iz sprinkled on the ground. Then, from the large sack, he took out some matches, lit one, and dropped it on the powder, chanting "Meka-leka-hai, meka-leka-ho!" The powder lit on fire immediately, and soon they had a roaring bonfire.

"Iz, it's so hot out, why are you making a fire?" Jack asked.

"I'm gonna cook some sausage. You guys want any?"

Jack and Nomu shook their heads.

"Just kidding," Iz said. "This is a special fire. It'll go out if any Emos come near us."

"Nifty," Jack said. "But I wouldn't mind some water if you've got it in one of your bags."

Iz chuckled, and indeed did pull out three large flasks of water. One he tossed to Jack, and the other he whipped at Nomu. Nomu, who was meditating and had his eyes closed, whipped to his feet and caught the flask in his right hand. Iz and Jack clapped. Nomu laughed.

"Cheers!" Iz said, and held his flask up. Jack and Nomu followed suit. Behind them, the fire went out with a hiss.

"Iz, the fire!" Jack warned, pointing.

"What?" Iz swung around and looked at the blackened ground where there magic fire had been. Then he looked at the jungle. For a second, all was quiet, then they heard a deafening _thump,_ and several dozen Despairs encircled the clearing.

"Ready to fight?" Iz asked.

"Always," Nomu said, and Jack answered with "Never better!"

This time, the Despairs all charged at them. Jack summoned the Rose and readied it in his right hand (his left still hurt when he moved it too much). Finally, the Despairs reached the center of the clearing, and the fight was on.

Jack swiped at the nearest one, then violently slashed it. It 'died,' and Jack went to fight the rest. He slashed at them, trying to duplicate the form he had seen Nomu use back on Paradise Beach, and was somewhat successful. He slashed right, swung the Rose around, slashed left, upper-slashed one of the bastards in front of him. A few leapt at him, he jumped back, dodging two of them, then he parried the other two. He counter-attacked one of these, and 'killed' it. He looked around, and saw he had barely left a dent in them!

"Time for plan B!" he said, and jumped into the air. Twenty, twenty-five, thirty feet in the air, and when he finally fell he brought the Rose into the ground, like he had done on the platform. It worked! The beams of light erupted from where the Rose had hit, killing dozens of Despairs.

"Take that!" he shouted, and doubled over. _Man, did that last wear him out!_ He steadied himself until his breathing returned to normal, then he looked up.

"No..." Jack said under his breath. He was surrounded again.

"For the love of God, what the hell is going on here?" Jack asked.

Iz was grappling with a Despair, and now he jumped backwards, near Jack. "I told you this place was infested. Ah!" He blocked the Despair, who had propelled itself at him, (Jack still wondered how they did that) and then plunged the spear into him. Nomu ran up to them.

"We are completely surrounded...there are hundreds of _them_..." he said with his head down. "Jack, it looks like our quest will end uncompleted."

"No! We can beat 'em! I hope..."

The encircling Despairs were now closing in on them.

"Well, time to enter the Clearing at the End of the Path. Jack, it was nice meeting you, however briefly." Nomu, who had previously sheathed his sword, now drew it. "Let's go down fighting!" With this, he charged at the army of Despairs. Iz gave a wild battle-shout and followed suit. Jack screamed, "I love you, Carol!" and also charged.

Jack met the Despairs head on. He bashed through them, hacking and slashing all around him. Soon, he was himself surrounded. Three Despairs leapt at him, all from the same side, and he took the Rose in both hands (for some reason, his arm hurt no more) and spun it around. It battered the Despairs away, and they all seemed to cut themselves on the thorns. That Jack hadn't cut _him_self on the thorns amazed him. He looked at the wounded Despairs. They were disoriented, and where they were cut, small wisps of black smoke rose and dissipated.

Now, all of the Despairs leapt at Jack. They covered him, he lost the Rose. _'I'm dying,'_ he thought. _'Well, this isn't so bad...it's actually kind of peaceful. Just let it end...let it all end...I'm **calm** now..'_ With this thought came a vision of the endless ocean, the waves lapping up on a quiet beach. Everything seemed _calm._

There was a blinding flash of white light.

The Despairs covering Jack were violently thrown off of him, in all directions. Many of them died. Jack arose from the place where he had nearly died, holding the Green Rose in his right hand. It was the same length as the Red Rose, but the bulb was slightly larger, and there were no thorns. Instead, there were very sharp leaves adorning the stem.

Nomu looked up from the group of Despairs he was killing and saw Jack standing there, his clothes torn, his head scarred, heaving from the effort of pushing them off of him.

_"Roses are Green, violets are blue, the sea is calm, and so are you."_

This time Jack had expected the voices, and was not surprised by them. The Despairs were regrouping and attacking him again. Somehow, there were MORE of them! Where were they all coming from? Jack couldn't take them all! Nomu ran next to Jack and held his sword out at the approaching horde.

Apparently, Iz was thinking the same thing, because he ran next to Jack on the other side and brandished his spear and shield.

"Well, now we have the Green Rose," Nomu said in an undertone.

"Wanna see something cool?" Jack asked. Nomu and Iz both looked at him, and nodded. Jack turned the Rose sideways and threw it at the horde of Despairs. It turned in the air like a boomerang, cut through maybe a dozen Despairs, and returned. Jack caught it in his right hand. "Wanna see something cooler?" he asked, and they nodded again. The Despairs were getting awfully close.

There was another flash of light, and Jack held the Red Rose in his left hand and the Green Rose in his right.

Holding two Roses, the Green in his right hand and the Red in his left, Jack charged at the Despairs. He held the Green Rose at his side, facing behind him at an angle like he had seen Nomu do it. The Red Rose he held at the same angle, but out in front of him. The Despairs charged in unison to meet him. He swiped both Roses at them, killing two. About a dozen leapt at him, he parried them all individually, and the ones that were parried with the Green Rose died instantly. He slid through their cluster on his back, cutting them from their feet as he went. He jumped to his feet, spinning the Red Rose in front of him and the Green Rose behind him. This alone took out the ones surrounding him. Still more came out of the forest. Jack killed them as they came to him almost effortlessly.

Nomu and Iz watched in utter fascination. Finally, Nomu got a good look at Jack's face and saw that he was perspiring. Heavily.

"Iz, he needs help! Whatever he's doing to hold both Roses...it's really beating the hell out of him."

Iz nodded and ran to join the battle. Nomu followed closely behind him, trailing his sword exactly as Jack had seen him do before. They crashed into the line of Despairs from behind, for all the Despairs were currently aware of was Jack.

Together the three of them fought, desecrating hundreds of the Despairs. Jack was getting more and more tired by the second, but somehow, every time he killed a Despair he felt a little better. He supposed that if he could keep killing, he could keep going.

Still they kept coming. And coming. And coming. Then, suddenly, they stopped. It was Nomu who killed the last one. All three of them looked around, expecting to still be surrounded.

"We did it!" Iz shouted.

"No," Jack said. "There's something else..."

They stopped and listened. They heard nothing.

"Jack, are you sure-" Iz started, but Jack shook his head and made a shushing gesture.

"Hile, you bastards!" came a voice from the jungle, and out popped Yinez, the former captain of the Paradise Guard. In his hand he held...

"A Rose? How can that be?" Nomu gasped.

"I don't care how he got it. I'm gonna kill him!" Jack shouted, and he leapt at Yinez, bringing down both Roses with all his might. Yinez was a master warrior with the spear, and a spear his Blue Rose was not. He held it in both of his hands (mistake) and cut himself on the thorns. Grimacing, he held it up to block Jack's dual blows. Jack came crashing down on him, and the Blue Rose was knocked out of Yinez's hands. Cursing, Yinez jumped backwards and retrieved the Blue Rose. By the time he turned to fight, however, Jack was upon him, cutting him in so many places that Yinez could never have counted that high, had he been given enough time to look.

Everything went red. And green. But mostly red. Every time Yinez blocked one of Jack's blows, another one hit him. He was too fast, and he had two weapons.

"N-not fair..." Yinez said, and he dropped dead.

Jack picked up his Blue Rose.

"Wait...there's nothing in the story, or any legend I know of, about a Blue Rose. Something here doesn't fit."

"Brilliant deduction, Holmes," a familiar voice called. Suddenly, the Blue Rose disappeared from Jack's hand. But there was no flash of light accompanying it.

"What the hell?" Jack asked. He was now only holding the Green Rose in his hand, and he was panting heavily.

A man walked from the jungle, holding the Blue Rose. "How unfortunate," he said. "I thought that the foolish Yinez could last a little longer than thirty-two seconds! But no matter. His purpose is served. Good to see you again, Jack."

"Can't honestly say the same for you, Sugo," Jack said, and looked up.

"I otta kick your ass," Jack grunted. "Did you send those things at us?"

Sugo was tall, maybe six four. He had slicked-back black hair, and a rat's tail on the back of his neck. He was wearing a jet-black trenchcoat. Jack couldn't distinguish his face, because he wore a strange mask over it.

"Maybe!" Sugo said, and with that, he held his right pinky up to the corner of his mask's mouth. Then he burst out laughing. "Sorry, I just got back from this one world, and saw this HILARIOUS movie!"

"What's a movie?" Iz asked Nomu in an undertone. Nomu shrugged.

"Ha ha, that's nice. What do you want?" Jack asked.

"Nothin'. Just stopped by to say hello." Sugo snapped his fingers, and he disappeared.

"Damn, I hate that guy," Jack said, and he fainted.

When he awoke, he was in a strange cave, surrounded by Iz, Nomu and several of the Paradise Guards.

"Hile, Jack. You've slept for almost three days, are you okay?" Nomu asked, genuine concern in his eyes.

"Yeah...where are we?" Jack asked, getting up.

"By the rock. The one that'll get us out of here. We were waiting for you to wake up."

"I've been laying here for three days?" Jack gasped.

"No, of course not. We just moved you here because our soothsayer said you would awaken soon. We decided to get a move on. Oh, and I'm coming with you," Iz said.

"Really! That's great!" Jack exclaimed. "Wait...why? Don't you have to protect the islands?"

"Nope! Not anymore! We figured out that the Emos were coming from the Isla de Muerta, and we-mostly you-killed them all. We're safe!"

"Sweet," Jack said, getting up. "Alright. This time, your world for sure, okay Nomu?"

Nomu nodded. He walked over to a large boulder and tapped it with his sword. The Green Rose that was still in Jack's hand glowed, and an image of a green rose appeared on the boulder.

"Hop in," Iz said. Jack went first, then Nomu.

"Goodbye, everyone," Iz said to the rest of the warriors. "Tell Sandra I love her, and I'll see her again soon."

"Hile, Iz of Paradise Islands," they all chanted in unison. Then Iz held his breath, and jumped in.

Ten minutes later, back on the platform, they were once again attacked by a semi-large group of Despairs. Nowhere near as close to how many they had fought on the Isla de Muerta, but still a formidable force. Because Jack was still pretty tired, and hadn't the energy to use both Roses at the same time. He fought with the Green one, to get a feel for it, Nomu supposed. Finally, the line of images appeared.

"Which one do we want?" Jack asked.

Nomu walked over. There was one that looked like a large metal building; Jack could see that almost everything was covered in chrome. There were also many screens with flashing lights on them.

"Over here!" Nomu said. Jack and Iz walked over to Nomu. He was standing in front of the one that looked like the large valley again. He raised his sword to it, and the sword began to glow, like before. Jack still held the Rose; no Despair was gonna fuck them up this time. The three of them also glowed, and then they were gone.

Far, far away from where Jack and his new friends were going, ten men sat around a large table. Five on one side, four on the other, and one, the leader, at the head. The one at the head said, "I call this, the seventeenth meeting of the Council for Attaining Divinity, to order. Presiding is me, Grand Divine, Tony Accardo. Please let all council members state their name."

"General Mandible."

"Jiro Ichumanji."

"Taro Ichumanji."

"Manute."

"Bill."

"Sauron."

"Imhotep."

"Marcellus Wallace."

"Randall Flagg."

"Excellent, gentlemen. Now, to the matter of the insolent brat. Taro, Jiro. He is heading to your world. So, I am giving you both the duty of killing him."

"We can do it," Jiro said. "Our father recently split his land among us, and banished our foolish brother."

"Ah, yes, Saburo. He will pay for not joining us."

Jack got up and brushed some dirt off of his shirt. He saw Nomu and Iz doing the same.

"Hey, Nomu? Where are we?"

"We're outside of the First Castle. Taro, the eldest son of Hidetora Ichumanji rules here. I believe I should explain what's going on in my world, first. Well, this land was unified by our former leader, Hidetora Ichumanji. But he has grown old, and he recently divided up the land among his three sons. The youngest, I believe his name is Saburo, was banished for threatening Hidetora, and him and his army are long gone. Jiro, the middle son, rules over the Second Castle. As for Hidetora, he should be in the First Castle now, visiting Taro."

"Where do you tie into this?" Jack asked.

"I served Take, as you know. Close friend of Taro. I was a deputy in Take's band of mercenaries." Nomu shrugged. "Taro hired us whenever he thought he needed some extra support. I think we'll-I mean they will-be getting a lot more work now that Taro is ruler of the First Castle. Which means he's in charge of defense of the land."

"Oh. Will Take be in here?" Jack asked.

Nomu shrugged. "Only one way to find out." He turned around, and so did Jack and Iz. What they saw was a HUGE wooden wall with an impressive-looking gate. It was guarded by three men with primitive rifles, dressed in yellow uniforms. Nomu approached them.

"Who goes there?" one asked.

"My name is Nomu, and I am not an enemy. I seek council with Take Nomura. Is he here?"

"I'm afraid he and his mercenaries are doing work. Are you a member of the Ichumanji clan?"

"No. I'm a member of Take's mercenaries. I got split from them, and came back here," Nomu lied.

"Oh...that explains your robe. You may enter. Are the ones with the strange clothes with you?"

"Yes," Nomu said. The yellow-clothed guard motioned at someone at the top of the gate, and the doors began to open. "Come."

Jack and Iz walked forward, and through the gates with Nomu. They came upon a brilliant city, filled with bustling people. There was a very strange castle behind the town, built upon a small hill. Jack also noticed that part of the town was elevated.

"Come. Towards the Castle," Nomu said, and walked forward without waiting. Jack and Iz followed.

When they arrived, they found more yellow-clothed guards waiting by the doors. Nomu approached and said, "I am a member of Take's mercenary force. Is either Take, Taro or Hidetora here?"

"Hidetora should be inside. Take is on a job, and Taro should be back very soon if he isn't back already. You may enter."

The guard opened the doors. Nomu took his sandals off and walked in, and motioned for Jack and Iz to follow suit, which they did.

Jack, Nomu and Iz walked down the deserted hallways of the First Castle. It was very nice in there, with finely polished tiles and freshly painted wood. Finally, they came to a small room at the top of the Castle. Inside, they saw a young man, a very beautiful woman, and a very old man sitting on a mat around what appeared to be some kind of food. This food was alien to Jack. Nomu signaled for them to be quiet so he could eavesdrop.

"Father, I want to talk to you about taking complete control over the land. You are getting very old, and I would like to offer help by giving you a break. A vacation, if you will," the young man said.

"Taro, you know better! I would never give up my empire until I die. Surely you can wait until then?" the old man replied. Jack peeked into the room. The old man was bending down over his food, and the woman was gesturing at the young man to keep going.

"Father, you are old and foolish. I demand that you abdicate control over the empire to me!"

"Never in my life! The reason I divided the castles-"

"Get out of my castle!" The young man shouted. The old man got up, scowled at the young one, and said: "Your brother would never treat his father with such disrespect," then he walked out of the entrance on the other side.

"Are you happy now? He's going to Jiro's place!" the young one demanded.

"That is fine. Your little brother would not stand up to you, even with his father. Besides, you have Take!"

"Take is gone right now! He'd better be back soon..."

Nomu gestured for them to follow him back the way they came, and they did. When they were safely out of earshot of Taro, he said: "This is not good. Come, we must follow Hidetora!" and with that, he began to run. Jack and Iz ran after him. They raced through the castle, this time not bothering to admire it's cleanliness. Finally, they burst through the doors. The guards were gone_. 'Good,_' Nomu thought. He slipped on his sandals and ran into the city, not even thinking about how abnormal it was to leave the castle unguarded.

They ran through the city, searching for Hidetora, but to no avail. Finally, they came upon a large group of soldiers and civilians on a street corner.

"What's going on?" Nomu asked one of the soldiers.

"This fool is getting picked on. It's really funny," the man chuckled. Jack, Nomu and Iz pushed and shoved to the front of the crowd, and came upon...

"My lord, NO!" Nomu shouted. Hidetora looked up, and the soldier he was fighting hit him in the head with the blunt end of a spear. Nomu, lightning-quick as ever, drew his sword and cut the soldier down with an intense fierceness.

"We should go."

The yellow-clothed guards moved forward to the front of the crowd and drew swords.

"Um, Nomu? Are they trying to kill us?" Jack asked.

"Oh, no! My lord, we should go!" someone shouted from near the front of the crowd. A man walked forward.

"Kyoami! My fool! How do you propose we get out?" Hidetora asked.

"So THAT'S what he meant by fool," Iz muttered to Jack.

"My lord, stay close to me!" Nomu said. He held his sword out to the guards.

Hidetora and Kyoami ran behind Nomu. Iz brandished his spear threateningly. Jack envisioned the sea again, just as he had done at Paradise Islands, and the Green Rose appeared in his hand.

"Th-the Rose!" one of the guards said. "Kiota, inform Lord Taro!"

Another guard nodded and started to run towards the castle, but a voice spoke up: "I'm here, and I know. Guards! Kill them all!" Taro was sitting on a rock above the crowd.

"No!" Jack gasped. The guards closed in on them, and Nomu ran forward to meet them. Iz followed.

"Jack, protect Hidetora!" Iz shouted.

Jack got the Rose ready and walked towards Hidetora. There were already four guards in the immediate vicinity of where Jack was standing, and one of them was swiping at Jack. Jack dodged and countered, and the man fell down, his head ALMOST decapitated. Another swung at Jack, but he parried it and booted the guy in the stomach with one of the sharp leaves on the stem. The last one seemed scared, and Jack took pity on him and knocked him out.

"Enough! Men, pull back! I have a better idea!" Taro shouted. He snapped his fingers, and Jack was once again surrounded by Despairs. In THIS world, the Despairs were back to being black, but they were wearing strange green helmets with holes in the top for their horns. They also had an emblem of a dragon curled around a rose on their helmets.

"No! Not again!"

"Tak!" Taro shouted, and the Despairs propelled themselves at Jack. He jumped up in the air, making sure not to look into their eyes, succesfully dodging them. Below, Hidetora and Kyoami watched in amazement as Jack leapt almost twenty feet in the air.

"Alright, bastards! Here comes a painful death, alla Jack Brown!" Jack plummeted downwards, and plunged the Rose into the ground as he landed. The dozen or so Despairs around him were all killed, but remarkably, no humans were.

_'Guess it only affects Emos,'_ Jack thought.

"Dammit. It seems I have underestimated you, Rose Warrior. Despairs are so...weak! Try some Angers!" Taro said, and laughed. He snapped again.

What appeared before Jack now was nothing short of a monster. It was about twice the size of a Despair, and had two horns instead of one. Their eyes were a light red, and Jack didn't need to be told not to look in THEIR eyes. Once again, they were wearing weird helmets with the emblem of a dragon around a rose.

Jack held the Rose out, and charged at the Anger.

Jack didn't expect the Anger to just die in a cloud of black smoke instantly, like the Despairs, and so wasn't surprised when he slashed the thing and all that happened is a few small black wisps of smoke rose from the wound. He had seen this happen before when he had only lightly cut some Despairs back on Paradise Islands. The Anger _did_ flinch, and Jack used this as an opportunity to deal it a string of light blows. Finally, after the fourth or fifth cut, the thing practically _was_ a cloud of black smoke. It lunged at him clumsily and he battered it away, finally killing it. In its wake, there were several small _pop!_ sounds and three more Angers appeared around him. Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw Nomu and Iz fighting more Angers near where Hidetora and Kyoami were standing. Jack jumped over the heads of the Angers that were leering at him, and landed very close to where Iz was grappling with an Anger.

"Here, let me help," Jack said, almost lazily, and he cut the Anger fiercely across the head. Black smoke gushed out of the wound, and the Anger wobbled around, disoriented. Jack followed up with an upwards-slash to the thing's belly. This killed it. Jack looked around for Iz, and saw he was already fighting another. Jack took the hint and moved on to his next victim. He caught a glimpse of it drawing close to Hidetora. Too close for comfort. Jack leapt, and glide right over the Anger, slashing it from above. He landed a couple feet in front of it, swung around, and whipped the Rose into its head. It was violently knocked to the side, where it struggled to get up. Jack walked over to it and put it out of its misery. Another propelled itself at him, just like the Despairs, and he jumped back towards Hidetora and Kyoami. Nomu and Iz were also near there.

"These guys are tougher, but they don't fight much, do they?" Iz muttered.

Jack nodded, eyeing the one that had jumped him, almost goring him with those horns. Confident that he was for the moment safe, Jack looked around. Three left. Well, it was obvious what to do.

The three friends looked at each other, nodded simultaneously, and each leapt in unison at an Anger. Jack took his in a string of crushing blows to the torso, then swung around, expecting more to _pop!_ up. But none did. Iz and Nomu finished with their Angers soon enough, then all three of them returned to Hidetora and Kyoami. By now there was quite a crowd watching them, including about twenty of Taro's guards.

"Impressive! You truly are the Rose Warrior!" Taro said, laughing. "Father, I would have your head for killing my guards! I want you three," he gestured to Jack, Nomu and Iz, "to leave this town now. Father, your fool can go free if you come with consent."

"Never! I'd rather commit seppuku!" Hidetora shouted defiantly.

Taro's grin turned into a scowl. "Your death shall be painful and dishonoring, Father."

"I've had enough of this!" Jack shouted. "Your highness, let's get out of here!"

Hidetora looked at Jack and nodded. "Thank you, Rose Warrior. If you can get me out of here, I can help you get our Rose."

"Sounds like a deal. As we like to say in my world, Taro! Commala come-come, the fighting's just begun!"

Taro scowled. "Very well." He then drew his sword. Jack noticed it was very similar to Nomu's, maybe a little longer. Taro jumped down from his ledge and landed about twenty feet in front of Jack.

"Guards! Get these civilians out of here!" Taro ran towards Jack, trailing his sword exactly as Nomu had done it. When Taro was about ten feet away, however, a voice thundered out: "TARO ICHIMANJI!"

Taro looked around, apparently frightened by the voice. Jack looked around, too, and saw a figure, dressed in black, standing on top of the First Castle. He seemed very small, but he jumped off of the Castle, towards them, and Jack could make out some of the features of him. He was bald, and was wearing a black trenchcoat and a strange mask over his head...

"Sugo?" Iz asked.

"No, this one's hair is different. He's dressed the same, and with the same stupid mask, though."

"Wh-who are you?" Taro asked, clearly scared shitless, Iz thought. Good, maybe they could escape.

Iz tapped Nomu on the shoulder and pointed to the gate. Nomu nodded and whispered something in Jack's ear. Jack also nodded, and they began to make their way to the gate, Hidetora and Kyoami following closely behind. Iz looked at Taro. He didn't notice. Iz ran towards the gate, praying the man who was dressed like Sugo but wasn't Sugo would keep Taro occupied for a while.

Outside the walls, Nomu said, "My lord, is there anyplace we can go?"

"The Third Castle. My bodyguards await me there. It is only a few miles to the east, about a day's march if we're fast."

Kyoami nodded. "And on this day Taro did attack Jack, but if he hadn't been stopped he would have been beaten blue and black."

Nomu and Hidetora roared with laughter, so Jack and Iz decided to force a chuckle. Humor was far behind in this world, it seemed. Then they began their march.

By the end of the day, the Third Castle was in site. Jack noticed it first and told Hidetora.

"Yes, that's it! Faster, for I fear Taro has sent troops to follow us!"

They ran, Kyoami helping Hidetora along. They made it to the gate in about ten minutes, and Hidetora was immediately recognized and they were let in.

In the throne room, Hidetora offered them any of his concubines. They all refused; Jack was in love with Carol, and Iz and Nomu were both either engaged or married. Hidetora shrugged and sat in his throne. They were in it for not five minutes when a guard rushed in and said, "Sire, we're under attack! Taro and Jiro have both sent massive armies!"

Hidetora got up, and they all went to the window.

"No..." Hidetora whispered.

The Third Castle was completely surrounded, as far as the eye could see, by yellow and red uniformed soldiers.

Hidetora drew his sword. Nomu did the same. Jack summoned the Rose.

"What are you all doing?" Hidetora asked.

"What do you think? Getting ready to fight, of course!" Jack said.

"Why? We have no chance?"

"You're drawing a blade, too, my lord. What is it that you are planning to do? Surely not-" Nomu started.

"Seppuku."

"My lord, NO!" Nomu shouted. He swung his sword at Hidetora's, cutting it.

"You FOOL! What am I to do? Get out, get out, get out!"

Nomu glared at him, then started to leave. "Come, Jack, Iz. We can make it out of here."

He left the room. Iz followed. Jack hesitated and also went. He looked behind him and saw that someone had thrown a torch through the window.

Meanwhile, Taro and Jiro overlooked the scene with a sense of deep satisfaction. Soon, the Rose Warrior would be dead, along with their troublesome father.

"Jiro, you've done it again, it seems."

"No, Taro. This was all you. Well done! The Council will surely reward you handsomely." Jiro turned around and walked over to a man named Kurogane. He whispered something to Kurogane, and Kurogane walked over to Taro.

"Lord Taro!" he said.

Taro looked around. "What?"

"This is from his highness, the future Lord Jiro." Kurogane drew his sword with a lightning-quick speed that rivaled Nomu's and cut Taro down.

"N-no! I was supposed to be the ruler...I...I...I-" and he fell down dead.

"Well done, Kurogane. Now, for the matter of my father..."

"Over there, lord, look!" Kurogane pointed to the gate, and they saw an old man in a white and red robe stumbling out into the wilderness.

"Fool. Leave him; the land will kill him if bandits don't."

Jiro laughed and turned to Taro's soldiers. Then he told them all of the propaganda: that the Rose Warrior had killed their beloved lord, and they must join him to get revenge. He was met with thunderous applause and cheers.

Nomu burst out of the door to the flaming Third Castle, drawing his sword and muttering about his foolish dishonorable Shogun. He cut down one of the awaiting soldiers, and bashed another on the head. Jack and Iz followed close behind. Nomu ignored their presence and kept fighting. He stabbed a soldier through the stomach, and kicked him off of the end of the blade.

Jack surveyed their odds. There were roughly three hundred yellow-armored soldiers on this side of the Third Castle, and there were three of them.

"Hey, Iz. You ever fight a hundred to one odds before?"

"Only with you two," Iz replied. He looked over at Nomu. He was taking on about five soldiers at once, but there was one sneaky bastard sneaking up behind him. Iz hurled his spear at him. It took the sneak in the back, piercing his lungs and coming out the other end. Iz ran forward and retrieved the spear, Jack following behind.

"If you could do that thing where you hold both of the Roses, that would be very appreciated," Iz muttered to Jack.

"I don't know...I was pretty damn tired after that."

"Okay, we'll have to beat them the old fashioned way," Iz said, and he lunged at a soldier, taking him through the neck.

Jack blocked a blow from a sword holding the Rose horizontally, but when the guy tried to stab him he had to jump back. He didn't want to kill anybody, but now he had no choice. He hit the person in the head with the blunt part, and then stabbed the soldier with one of the leaves.

"Nomu, what's the plan?" Jack screamed, parrying three attacks at the same time.

"Kill them all!"

"No, seriously!" Jack slit a man's throat.

"Fuck, you're right. I don't know!" shouted Nomu, slashing three men.

"I do!" called the voice they had heard earlier. The bald man in the black trenchcoat and the strange mask was suddenly behind them. He grabbed Jack and Iz in one arm, and Nomu in the other. Then they were all gone.

Jack found himself in a strange room. It was dimly lit by several candles, and each wall was blocked by a very large sofa. There was no door. Jack was on one of the sofas. He got up and looked around. Nomu was getting up on another sofa, and Iz on a third.

"Welcome, ka-tet of the Rose. I trust you aren't too tired?"

Jack looked towards the center of the room. The bald-headed, trenchcoat-wearing man was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring at him.

"W-who are you?" Jack asked. He _was_ tired, very tired. More then he had been after fighting all the Despairs on Paradise Islands.

"My name is Dexter Bench. Have any of you three ever heard of The 17th?"

"The 17th?" Jack asked.

"Did I stutter? Yes, the 17th," Dexter snapped. "I'm guessing no. You three are all pitiful fools. I can't believe you hope to breech The Fortress!"

"Who ever said that?" Nomu asked.

"Don't bullshit me. I know your ultimate goal. Jack, would you like to see Carol?"

Jack started. He got up from the couch he was on and summoned the Rose. "Where is she? What have you done with her?"

"Take delivered her to The Fortress this morning. She is in a holding cell right now. Do you want to see her?"

"Yes! Please, take me to The Fortress!" Jack shouted. He ran to Dexter. "Take me or I'll cut you in half!"

"Feisty. Well, if you want to see her, there is one thing you must do for me."

"Anything," Jack said in an undertone.

"There is a man named Herman Melvin. You must seek him out and kill him. Goodbye," Dexter said. He snapped his fingers, and he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"How did he do that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," said Iz, getting up. "Jack, are you really going to kill a man to save Carol?"

"...Yes."

"Very well. Then I'm with you!" Iz said.

"As am I. But first, we need to find out where we are," Nomu said. "I knew that voice was familiar! He's the one who hired Take to kidnap Carol and kill you. Bastard. And why was he calling us 'the ka-tet of the Rose?'"

"There doesn't seem to be a door in here," Iz said. "Just this really foggy window."

"That _is_ a door," Nomu replied. He walked over to the foggy window and grabbed ahold of the side. He pulled, and the door slid open. They were greeted by a beautiful morning. It just made Jack (and Nomu, and Iz) feel more tired then they all did.

"I just wanna take a nap," Iz said.

"Me too," Jack said. "How about it?"

"Sounds good to me," Nomu said. "Just not a long one."

They all walked back to the couches against the walls and laid down. Soon they were all asleep.

Jack and company were awakened several hours later by someone screaming.

Jack got up from the couch and summoned the Green Rose. He sprinted across the room to the strange opaque 'door,' if that was what it was, and looked for a way to open it. He saw a handle on the right side of it. Jack pulled the handle, and the door slid open.

Jack surveyed the scene. Hidetora and his fool, Kyoami, were standing outside of the house, along with two other men. They were surrounded by Despairs and Angers. It was Kyoami who had screamed.

One of the men Jack did not know asked, "W-what's going on?"

"What the hell do you mean what's going on? There are creatures attacking us, can't you see-" Jack turned towards the man and realized that no, he couldn't see. He had no eyes. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry!" Jack called. Then he, Nomu, and Iz ran towards the scene developing some thirty feet ahead of them.

Jack crashed through the line of Emos and sliced a Despair into dust before they could react. Then he was hacking and slashing right and left, killing Despairs and wounding Angers. Iz and Nomu backed him up. The battle was all over in a matter of minutes.

Jack breathed heavily and banished the Rose, for now. Then he looked up at the men before him.

"What's going on here?"

"M-my name is Tsurumaru," the blind man spoke up. Hidetora gasped and looked at him. "What happened?" Tsurumaru continued.

"I'm not sure...we kind of woke up at this house..." Nomu said.

"This is my house," Tsurumaru stated. "I was outside, taking a nap, when I awoke to hear the footsteps of three people coming towards me. I got up and ran to them, and then I heard some strange noises, and that's where you came in."

Jack assumed Tsurumaru was still talking to him. He looked at Hidetora. "Hidetora, how did you escape from the Castle?"

Hidetora just looked at him. No, gazed at him, with blank, lifeless eyes.

"I'm afraid the Lord Hidetora is not in his right mind," the other stranger said. "My name is Tango. I am-was-a servant of Hidetora, but he banished me along with his youngest son, Saburo."

Tsurumaru spoke up, "Hidetora! You lousy bastard, you had my eyes cut out! I hope that whatever happened to you happens again a thousand times worse!"

"Enough!" Tango snapped. "The kingdom faces hard times. Saburo in exile, the Shogun mad, and Taro dead. What are we to do?"

"We need to find a more secure place to hide. They know where this is now," Nomu said, shaking his head.

"There are ruins of a castle a few miles from here. They're very defensible," Tango suggested.

"Perfect! First, is there some food or water here?"

"I have several jugs behind the house, and a well. No food we can take with us," Tsurumaru said sheepishly.

"Enough. We can live off of the land. We'll leave in one hour." Nomu sheathed his sword and went around to the back of the house.


	2. II

-1Carol woke up slung over a man's shoulder. Jack's coat was still on her, but her bottom half was completely bare.

"What the hell did you guys do to me?" she screamed, and struggled violently against the man holding her. It was the same one who had beaten Jack and that other man, Nomu, in a fight; the one in the gold robe. Take.

"We all raped you in your ass," Take said, and the men laughed. Carol was horrified, because she couldn't tell if Take was kidding or not. She didn't feel any different, so she assumed he was.

"Where are you taking me?" Carol screamed. "Help! Someone!"

"You are far from anybody that can help you. You would do well to shut up or I will kill you."

Carol shut up. She wished she had some clothes, because it was very cold. She lifted her head and surveyed her surroundings.

"God…"

It was a wasteland. That's it. Completely barren, no trees, plants, grass, anything. Carol looked up at the sky. It was completely black. No stars. The only light came from torches Take's men were carrying.

"Where are you taking me?" Carol screamed.

"The Fortress."

"Where the hell is that? What the hell is that?"

"Let me put it this way. When you get there, you'd better hope your boyfriend is smart enough to come get you, because if he isn't, you'll surely meet your death."

Carol was stunned. Boyfriend?

"Jack isn't my boyfriend."

"Right, sure. Listen, Carol, was it? I don't want to hurt you-"

"Then why did you kidnap me and hurt Jack?"

Take answered, "I had no choice. Well, I did, but that's beside the point. The point is, we were hired to do this, and our Shogun will not have us refuse a man with good money."

"So you're mercenaries?"

"Yes."

"What's a Shogun?"

"It's what we call a King in my world. Speaking of King…"

Meanwhile, inside the meeting hall of The Fortress, fifteen men were talking heatedly.

"Sugo, word on the boy."

"He is leaving this world. I believe he is seeking out that girl. Carol."

"Sugo, spare us the details and motivations."

"Apologies," Sugo said, sincerely.

The man continued, "Dexter, that was a sheer streak of brilliance with hiring Take and giving that infernal council control of the Emos. Well done!"

"Thank you, Herman," Dexter Bench replied.

"All that remains is to kill that Accardo man. Without him, the CAD will fall and we will be almost unopposed."

"What of the boy?" Dexter asked.

"Do not worry yourself with him," Herman said with contempt. "I believe the council will take him out."

"Yes, sir. Now, about my promotion…"

"Your King is a very corrupt man. I had the displeasure of meeting him the other day about finding you…"

"You're the one who had the Brute Tre sent to my house?"

"Heavens no. I told the King that I needed to meet you, and he said he knew of a way. That's it. I don't know how he did it, but he failed."

"He had my family killed! It's your fault! You bastard! I'll fucking kill you! You fucking bastard, I'll fucking kill you!" Carol sobbed.

"Carol, listen. I do not lie or cheat, so I will take partial responsibility for your familie's death. For that, I am sorry. But I will apologize no more to you, for you have insulted me. Now, shut up. We're almost there."

Carol shut up. She was starting to see beyond the heartless killer she had first suspected Take of being. She considered this, and came to the conclusion that Take was a good man to which bad things happen.

They marched in silence for another twenty minutes. The soldiers kept looking at Carol and smiling, but she ignored them. It was too cold to think about horny men looking at her. After a while, she started to feel uneasy.

"What you feel now, possibly fatigue, uneasiness, fear or anger, is a result of us drawing closer to The Fortress. It should wear off once you're inside. Now, you might think it is a simple building, but it is so much more. It is itself an entire world, bigger than all of the others put together. You'd do best to put your emotions behind you."

Carol did as Take said, but found it was hard. By the time she finally did, they were standing in front of a large wrought-iron gate. Huge. Monumental. Colossal. Titanic. Those were words to describe it. It reached so high into the blank sky that Carol could not see the top of it.

"Is it ever light here?" Carol asked.

"No. It is always like this," Take replied. He drew his sword and held it up to the lock on the gate. The lock itself was probably the size of a large dog. On the lock, Carol saw an emblem of some kind had been scratched on the surface. The shape Carol had learned in geometry class; it was a scalene triangle. The C point (C being a variable,) in other words the point connected with the two longest sides, was on the bottom.

"Take? What does the triangle mean?"

"It is the emblem of the Seventeenth."

Carol started. Now she got it. The triangle was the numbers 1 and 7, just pushed together so it looked like a triangle. Interesting.

Take stuck his sword into the lock, and both immediately started to glow. Carol gasped.

After a minute of Take just holding the sword in the lock, a man appeared at the gate.

"Take? Is it you?"

"It is. Hello, Kevin."

"Hi. Is she here?"

"Yes," Take replied. "I'll leave her here for you. Goodbye."

"You sure you won't stay? They're all playing poker."

"I'm quite sure," Take said. He lifted Carol off of him, and set her down. She shuddered, for her feet were bare and the ground was absolutely freezing. The torchlight faded as Take's men walked away. Silence. Then, a monumentally loud creaking noise. Carol jumped, then put her hands to her ears. It only lasted a few seconds, however, and the gate was open. Carol was surprised something so big could open so fast.

"Hello, Carol. Goodness, you must be freezing!"

Carol whirled around. The man named Kevin was standing in front of her, but she couldn't see his face, for it was obscured by a strange mask. Jack didn't recognize the mask, for he never paid attention in history class, but Carol recognized it immediately.

"Nice Guy Fawkes mask," Carol remarked. "Who are you?"

"I'm the junior member in the Seventeenth. My rank is Seventeenth, and I'm in charge of the gate and special deliveries. Which is what you are. It would usually take hours to walk up to the door, but I can teleport us. They're at a 'meeting' right now."

"You weren't invited?"

"Well, the Maker, whose rank is One, doesn't go either. So, I've decided that only the cool people get to ditch the meetings." With that, Kevin grabbed Carol's hand.

Carol laughed. This place wasn't so bad. Was her father really here?

"Shut your eyes," Kevin said. Carol did so, and when she opened them a couple seconds later, she was inside a HUGE white hallway. She could hear voices in the distance.

"We've got some walking to do," Kevin said. Carol nodded and they walked.

For about an hour they walked, Carol wondering all the while when it would end. The voices got progressively louder. When Carol sensed that they really were almost there, Kevin grabbed her arm again. She looked at him. He seemed scared. No, worried.

"Carol, listen. I have to warn you, you are not going to like it here. I am very sorry, believe me. I will have no part in it, but I can't stop them. Please, forgive me."

"Kevin, what are you talking about?"

"Nothing. Just listen. I have a gift for you. Here, put these on."

Kevin withdrew from inside his trench coat a small cloth bundle. It was silver and faintly shimmering.

"Clothes?"

"You don't want to walk around naked all the time, do you?"

Carol laughed. "I guess not. Thanks."

She took them. There was a pair of underwear and a skirt, along with a bra. But no shirt.

"Um, Kevin? Do you have a shirt?"

"That is a shirt. I know it's not what you're used to, but-"

"No, these are…nice."

"Sorry, but women's clothes are in short supply here. Do you like the cloth? I believe it's called Capri."

"I do. It's very…comfortable."

Carol shivered. She had never worn anything that had shown off so much before. At least it was warmer in here.

"Come on. The door should be around here." Kevin put his arm out, and in a flash of white light a blue Rose appeared in his hand.

"A Rose? That one's like's Jack's!"

"Similar, but unlike your friends, this one isn't real."

"Real?" Carol asked.

"Never mind. Anyways, we all have one."

"We? Who's we?"

"We who have ceased to exist. The Seventeenth. It was nice meeting you, Carol. Maybe I'll see you again."

With that, Kevin snapped his fingers and he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Suddenly, a door appeared in the wall Carol was facing. She grasped the knob, turned it, and opened it.

The voices got louder. Carol walked through a narrow hallway and came upon a large table. Sitting around this table were fifteen men, all drinking heavily, playing cards.

"Um…hello?"

The men all looked up from their card game at Carol. She could see that they too were also wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

"Ah, Carol! Good, good. Dexter, I must once again reiterate how good of an idea hiring Take was."

"Thank you, Herman."

"Yes. Well, Carol, have a seat, why don't you?"

"Um…ok."

Carol walked over to the table and sat down at the only empty seat, in-between two tall men, both with long black hair. She wondered if they had the same faces too. Hell, every one of them could have the same face.

"Do you know how to play poker, Carol?" Herman asked.

"Um…no, I don't think I've ever heard of it."

"Oh, well then, never mind," Herman sighed. "Would you like a beer?"

"No thank you."

"I'm kidding. You're too young." Herman laughed.

"If you could just please tell me why I'm here?"

"All right, all right. Welcome to The Fortress. We-"

"The Fortress?" Carol suddenly remembered something important. "My father is here! Where is he?"

The men all laughed. "Bring him out," Herman called. "Oh, and Sugo, I raise you a hundred bucks."

Carol didn't pay attention to what else was happening, because, all of a sudden, the two men with the same hair sitting on either side of her snapped their fingers and a bloody mass appeared on the ground behind Carol.

"What the hell is that?"

"Your father."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Jack, Nomu, Iz, Hidetora, Tango, Kyoami and Tsurumaru trudged up the rocky mountain path towards the ruins of some castle. Tango said that the castle had been destroyed by Hidetora's army in an earlier war, but Jack didn't care. He was just concerned with finding the next Rose.

"It's getting dark. We'll camp here tonight," Tango said. They were right at the edge of the ruins, and they would be able to easily see someone sneaking up on them. Tango and Nomu sat down to build a fire while Kyoami helped Hidetora sit down. Hidetora was still not himself. Tsurumaru had already sat down on the ground next to Jack. Jack was about to do the same when he heard a pair of voices.

"Villagers reported a group of men coming this way. We have to be sure."

Nomu put his finger to his lips. "Jiro's scouts," he whispered, and silently drew his sword. They could hear the two men walking around the stone they were behind. Any second they would be seen.

Nomu moved to the edge and waited. The two men finally walked around the boulder, and Nomu cut the first one down immediately. The second at least had a second to draw his sword before Nomu slit his throat.

"These men…they aren't Jiro's scouts!" Tango shouted.

"Shhh! There could me more of them!"

Tango ignored Nomu and kneeled before the two corpses.

"These are men I worked with! They were Hidetora's scouts! They-"

"They've betrayed us all. This is bad. We need Saburo…" Nomu looked around. "It's getting late. We should sleep. I'll keep first watch."

Everyone nodded and laid by the fire. Hidetora was already asleep.

Jack slept. Not as long as he would have liked, however, because he was awakened by a scream. He got up and summoned the Rose.

"What's going on?"

"It's Hidetora!" Iz shouted. Jack looked. Hidetora was shaking on the ground, screaming something about murder, and have mercy.

"Oh, no. Well, we might as well get up anyways…look."

The sun was rising.

"What do you mean, my father?" Then it dawned on Carol. "No…you didn't!"

Carol's hands shook with rage. "Yes, Carol. You are angry, I know. But it's okay. Your father was a weak little prune anyways. He was expendable."

Carol glared up at Herman Melvin. The mask's lack of emotion was unsettling.

"Of course, it's not his fault. It was probably actually your fault. He was so worried about you that all he could do was beg that we leave you alone. In fact, you-"

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Carol screamed. In a flash of white light, the White Rose was in her hand.

"Excellent. Now-"

Carol cut him off again, this time by leaping on him and trying to bring the Rose down on his head. This Rose was shorter then the others, but just as light. Instead of thorns or leaves on the "stem," it was covered with a vine that twisted its way up. Carol found it was easy to grip with the vine there. It filled Carol with energy; not energy like she was used to, but something else. She knew she could do anything with this, things neither she or the bastard in front of her had ever even dreamed of.

Herman kicked his chair back a few feet and blocked Carol with another Blue Rose. She swung down again and again, but Herman easily parried each one.

It was no use. Carol had never fought with anything like this before. The only thing she had any experience with were various guns. She gave up.

"That's it, Carol. Now, if you want to live, you have several tasks to do."

"Go to hell!" Carol snapped.

"I can't."

"What?"

"You see, Carol, there are certain kinds of 'people,'" Herman said, "who do not exist. We are among those people. And it's not that they don't exist, it is that they have ceased to exist. We are nothing. Empty shells. We can imitate human feelings, but in the end, it doesn't even matter. In the end, we are nothing but blank souls. We are called by the oldest scholars and sorcerers Lifeseekers. I acknowledge us being called that, for that is what we are. There are but a few of us left, for the prejudice and hate against us has led us to be hunted. Let me tell you a story."

Carol listened with fascination. She recalled asking a teacher when she was 13 what a Lifeseeker was, and the teacher said that that was forbidden talk. She had put it out of her mind (she didn't even remember where she first heard the term.)

"Nine hundred and ninety-eight years ago, there was an entire nation made up of Lifeseekers. All of us here were among them. We were the guiding light of all the worlds (this was after The Splitting,) and we led in technology and riches. We even discovered how to travel between the worlds without the Roses. We also discovered how to make artificial roses, and how to engineer artificial Metallica. We were SO CLOSE to making the Roses obsolete, when we were attacked by soldiers under the Eastern Alliance. Attacked out of spite and jealousy. Their legions overran our borders and wrought ruin upon our cities. We fought and were killed, our technology lost under only a month of warfare and debris. How we lost I have no idea. We had so many weapons that they didn't, but they must have had the greatest genius of the time leading them. Whatever the case, we were destroyed and the survivors put in labor camps. We were put in the most heinous of all of them. We were forced to build a monument to the "heroism" of the soldiers who fought against us. This was too much. We did the work, but secretly plotted a way to fight back. All we needed was a leader. And, lo and behold, we found just that in Randall Fagg. He was a new arrival to the camp. The fire that burned inside of him was so great that it allowed him to keep his Black Rose the Eastern Alliance had failed to remove from him properly. He armed us, and at midnight on June Second, we overpowered the guards and went on a riot. We destroyed the monument we had worked so hard to build, and killed every human in sight. I sometimes regret what we did, but then I remember I have no feelings. We killed or raped women and children. We slaughtered without remorse, without regret, until everyone else was dead. Many of us were killed. There were exactly seventeen survivors. Randall taught us the secrets we had forgotten, and we forged these Blue Roses. Our mission now is not as much to seek life as it is to get revenge. June 2nd, two years from now, will be the thousandth anniversary of when we were destroyed. On this day, our efforts will come to fruition. Every world will collapse, and all the Roses will be absorbed into the black one. Then Randall Fagg will have ultimate power, and he will be able to turn us into real people! We will become whole, and we will all rule all the worlds side by side with Randall!"

"You won't succeed."

Herman laughed. "Well, little girl, you might not think so, but as second in command of The Seventeenth, I command you to help us. And you _will_ help us, be aware of that. If you don't, we have men very close to Jack Brown that can kill him at any time."

"WHAT?" Carol shouted. She got up again and brandished the Rose. "THAT'S IT! LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Don't you want to hear the story of The Fortress first?"

Jack, Nomu, Iz, Tango, and Kyoami crouched behind a fallen pillar.

"Look!" Jack pointed. There was an Anger fighting two Despairs.

"Ten coins on the Anger," Kyoami said. Nomu scowled at him.

"Well, we can't just leave them," Jack said as the Anger let out a ferocious howl. "They're too loud. They could give us away."

"Let's go!" Nomu said, drawing his sword. Jack summoned the Green Rose and leapt at the Emos. Iz followed close behind. Jack landed behind the two Despairs and killed both of them. The Anger leapt at him, but Jack parried him away. The Anger flew backwards and Nomu slashed it in the air. It fell down, "bleeding" black fumes of smoke. It leapt at Nomu, but Iz threw his spear and it went through the Anger, killing it.

Before any of them could say anything, they heard another scream.

"Hidetora again," Jack said. Nomu nodded, and they went back towards their camp. When they arrived, they immediately saw that it was not Hidetora who had screamed. It was Tango.

"Hidetora is gone."

"This fortress was built before the world as we know it came to be. It was designed and

built by the Dark Elves of Bryn. Bryn was not a city back then, it was what all of this land was

known as. After it was finished, their king gathered the whole tribe in front of it. Their sorcerer

put a spell on the entire tribe protecting them, for they had built the Fortress on what was once a

sacred temple honoring one of the gods of The Great Old Ones. Whatever god it was, it didn't like

that. Furious, the god merged itself with The Fortress, which was at the time much smaller, and

turned it into the behemoth it is today. The elves were scared and sought to destroy what they had

built. They went to get help from the earliest actual kingdom, the kingdom of Fallan, whose

king's name was Samuel. Samuel rallied every tribe of humans, elves, dwarves, goblins, and

dragons into the largest army ever known. They surrounded The Fortress and attacked it, crushing

pillars and destroying walls and doors. Not even this god could seem to fight back. Finally, The

Fortress was nearly destroyed. Samuel ordered a final charge, but the god came back with a

vengeance, and rebuilt the entire thing in but a minute. The armies kept fighting, but this time the

god fought back. Tens of thousands were killed. Samuel would not give up, for he knew what had

to be done. Finally, it was down to the god and Samuel himself, who was a great warrior. Samuel

crashed through The Fortress, fighting off whatever the god used against him. Finally he reached

the basement, where the Core was. There they fought for hours, neither tiring or backing down.

Finally Samuel saw what had to be done. He leapt into the Core and fought the god in the depths

of hell itself. Samuel lost the fight and was spit back out. Near death, he used the last of his power

to throw his lance back into the Core. Praying for a shot. His aim was true, and he hit that bastard

dead in the heart. The god screamed with fury but could not do anything. The god was pushed

back down and now lies dormant. Before it was sucked back down, however, it spit the lance back

out at Samuel. It hit him right in the heart. It killed his body, but could not break his spirit.

Samuel's soul returned to Fallan, where it said its goodbyes to his wife and children, and prepared

to ascend to the heavens. His wife took the sacred crown of Fallan and gave put it in Samuel's

memorial. Samuel could not bear to leave for some reason, so he joined himself with the

memorial itself, which was a very large statue made of Metallica. But something wrong happened.

Instead of controlling the statue, which he thought, the statue got broken into the Roses, which

was the emblem of Fallan. This is the story of The Roses. Samuel's broken spirit remains inside

them to this day. I suppose his hope is that when the god finally returns whomever may use the

Roses can defeat him once and for all. Only people related to Samuel himself can use the Roses."

"No…" Carol stuttered, looking at the White Rose in her hand. "That means I'm related

to him! That means I'm related to Jack!"

"Not necessarily. I didn't mean blood-related. Samuel himself had twelve children, and

all of his children at least twenty-five between them. There were many different marriages. I have

estimated that about three percent of all the people in all the worlds put together are related to

him, through blood or marriage. I happen to know you aren't related to Jack by blood."

"How could you know that?" Carol asked.

"Confucius said, 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.' I know virtually

everything there is to know about you and Jack."

"Who's Confucius? Wait, I don't care. Is that story true?" Carol's curiosity was getting

the better of her. She was getting side-tracked. She couldn't help it, and she wasn't aware of it yet.

"We're your enemies, yet I just met you today. What is going on here?" Carol demanded.

Herman Melvin sighed. "I'd better tell you. It'd be worse if I didn't. First let me say that if you cooperate completely both you and Jack will survive. Resist, and not only will you do our bidding, but you will die when we are finished. You will do our bidding. You have no choice. I can torture you. I can kill the man, and I use that term lightly, you love. I can even put you under a mind-control spell, but I hope it doesn't come to that. Now listen. You will obey us, go where we say, do as we bid, until we are finished with you. Jack will continue relatively safely on his quest, unopposed by us at least, until he has served the purpose we need him to do. After that, he will join us in The Fortress. You two will get your own private tower, and if you like you can be generals in our War to End all Wars. If not, you can live it out in The Fortress, and when it is over you can either retire together or serve in the military or government. You will have many choices, but right now you have none. Do you understand?"

"Yes…but explain the motives of what I'm doing."

"Your first mission is to find a man and deliver a written message to him. His name is Iz, and he lives on Paradise Islands."

Jack crashed through the bushes and out into an 'open' field full of men. Soldiers from many armies. Tango had warned them that this would happen, and he was supposed to come here to help Saburo's troops win. Yes, Saburo had returned with his army. But it was relatively small, and he was being violently opposed by Jiro and two other armies. Saburo's colors was a light blue. Jack saw them camped at the other end of the field. Nomu and Iz would were looking for Hidetora. They would meet Jack back here and help when they found him.

Jack raced across the field. He could see the familiar color of Jiro to his right. Hopefully he wouldn't be spotted. He also saw two other armies doing battle to his left. He pressed forward.

Jack was drawing close now. Saburo's men had seen him, for he saw them draw the strange rifles and aim at him. Saburo, or one of his aides, signaled for them to stop. Jack reached the line and doubled over, panting. Finally he looked up.

"Are you Saburo?"

"Yes. You must be Jack."

"How did you-"

"I received a letter by horseman that you would be coming. It was from a man named Iz. He told me to ask you if you are ready to 'kick some ass?'"

"Oh, I'm ready to kick some major ass."


	3. III

"And so it is that these four large armies meet on the field of Hachiman. There is Saburo and his army, Fujumaki, Saburo's patron, is also here with support. There is also a warlord named Ayabe who resides but beyond this forest. And, of course, there is the source of all of these problems, Jiro. His army is the largest of all. Come, we must go and aide Saburo."

Nomu took off, leaping out of the forest he and Iz were hiding in. Tsurumaru, Tango and Kyoami were still searching for Hidetora, but this battle was far more important. He and Iz needed to be here.

Iz immediately took off after Nomu. Meanwhile, in the center of Hachiman Field, the battle had begun.

"They're coming fast!" Jack shouted to Saburo.

"I know! Just hold your unit steady!" Saburo drew his sword.

Jack surveyed the enemy army. They had been watching all morning. Ayabe's army had marched towards them, so Fujumaki marched forward to meet them. Fujumaki had pushed them back into Jiro's army, and Jiro had annihilated the remainder of Ayabe's troops. Then he had marched forward and did the same to Fujumaki. It was down to these last two armies. Jack had been given control of a unit of warriors called _Samurai._ At first Jack had asked if Nomu and Take were also Samurai, but Saburo referred to them as _Ronin._ Jack shrugged. Time to fight.

Jiro's cavalry were drawing close. Jack knew the plan: Saburo's men, armed with a strange type of primitive rifle called an Arquebus, who were hidden, would march to the front of the line and take out Jiro's cavalry. When Jiro's ground forces marched through, Jack would take the _Samurai_ and hold off until Iz and Nomu got back, hopefully with Hidetora. After they arrived, the plan was to take Hidetora and escape. Jack's unit was vastly outnumbered by Jiro's ground troops, but he hoped to win by the raw skill of his men, coupled with cover fire from the Arquebi. The cavalry were only about a hundred yards away when Jack heard Saburo yell, "NOW!" Jack ducked, as did all of his men, and they heard gunshots from all around them, then the whinny of hundreds of horses, and finally, the dull thud of hundreds of bodies hit the ground. Jack looked up and saw Jiro screaming. The remainder of the cavalry were still charging, and still getting shot.

"Why isn't this working? We should be able to advance while they reload!?" Jiro shouted.

"If one gun can fire while another reloads, continuous fire can be achieved. The might of a warrior is no mach for the brainpower of a very smart young man." With that, Saburo smiled down at Jack.

"My idea," Jack said under his breath.

The cavalry were gone. The riders who had survived were getting up, drawing swords, and joining the ground troops.

"FIRE!" Saburo shouted. The arquebussier continued. It was now the ground force that was getting ripped up. But their forces, who were much larger to begin with, had greatly increased from the remaining cavalry, and eventually were but fifty feet from the arquebussier line. There was less than half remaining.

"FINAL VOLLEY!" Saburo shouted. The arquebussiers fired one last time, and Jack shouted "RAN!" He had meant to shout "run" but the men got the idea. Jack summoned the Green Rose and charged with them. The men crashed into Jiro's infantry. Jack hacked through three men, scouting for Jiro. His eye caught him at the back of the line.

"Coward," he snarled. Jack leapt into the air at Jiro and landed right in front of him. Jiro gasped and drew his sword.

"You little brat! Time for you to learn what it's like to fight a Samurai!"

"Bring it!" Jack leapt at Jiro again, upslashing at him. Jiro parried it and stabbed at him, but Jack spun around the blade and kneed Jiro in the stomach. Jiro keeled over, but quickly regained himself and tripped Jack. The Rose spun away from him, and Jiro pointed the tip of his blade right into Jack's face.

"Time to die!" Jiro brought the sword up.

"Not today!" Jack remembered the ocean and the Green Rose was in his hand. He swung it at Jiro, and…connected! Jack saw blood and a tooth fly out from Jiro's mouth as the Shogun fell to the ground. Jack stepped on Jiro's face to deter him from getting up, and looked at the battle. He had lost almost no men! The plan had worked perfectly!

"Attack!" Jiro shouted from the ground. Out of the surrounding woods, thousands of soldiers, all armed with swords, streamed out. The arquebussiers quickly opened fire, but were immediately surrounded.

"You'll die no matter what, Jiro!" Jack shouted. He put his hands around Jiro's throat. "Any last words?"

"Nope." Jiro snapped his fingers, and the sky went dark. Jack looked up.

"No…" the sky was filled with floating beasts. Obviously Emos, but Jack had no clue what kind. They looked like the Gargoyles of the Old One's Lore, but in their hands they held large swords.

"What do you call these bastards?"

"Panics. Have fun!" Jiro punched Jack's leg. Jack pulled it off of Jiro's torso, swearing. Jiro got up, held his sword out, and brought it down into himself. Meanwhile, all of the men, even Jiro's, were staring up at the Panics, looking, well, panicky.

"Jack! Are those Gakis?" Saburo had joined Jack.

"No. Tell the men not to look in their eyes. And, are those weapons made of Metallica?"

"We of the Council for Attaining Divinity are here on a very special day. First, Taro's replacement has been chosen, and we would like to also welcome a new member entirely. Taro's replacement is a man we have met before; he has subbed for Taro or Jiro numerous times. Please welcome Take."

"Tony, have you any word on Jiro?" Randall Flagg asked.

"I believe the Rose bearer has gotten the best of him. No matter, his time was limited here anyways. Now, the new member's name is…um…hey, what was your name again?" Tony Accardo asked.

"Judas Iscariot."

"The swords are. Wait, are you saying that only Metallica affects these beasts?"

"You say true, I say thankya. That means the arquebussiers are worthless?"

"I'll tell them to draw their swords." Saburo hurried off.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY LISTEN UP! THE WAR IS OVER! JIRO IS DEAD! WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER IF WE WANNA SURVIVE! WHO'SE WITH ME!?"

Everybody, even Jiro's troops, yelled and held their swords in the air. The Panics let out a screech that chilled Jack's bones. What was he doing! He couldn't fight these things! He needed to get out of here, and fast. Around him, the soldiers were screaming and literally running for the hills beyond the forest. Jack was about to follow suit, but he came to his senses.

_"For them it's the scream that affects people, not eye-contact! Or maybe it's both…"_ Either way, it wasn't going to affect Jack. He saw that Saburo was also holding his ground. Good man. Jack got up just in time to see the Panics screeching down towards the field.

"GO!" Jack shouted to Saburo. Jack leapt in the air and slashed one of the Panics. The panic disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

"Sweet!" Jack said, and pumped his arm. He landed perfectly. About twenty yards to his left Saburo was also fighting. Jack parried a blow from a panic that was hovering about a foot away from his face and killed it. There were a lot more to go.

Meanwhile, Iz and Nomu looked on with horror as the Panics swarmed all over Hachiman field. They ran faster to get to the battle, but were still a ways away.

The battle pressed on. There were Jack and Saburo in the center of the field. Nomu and Iz were about a kilometer away. And another kilometer after that was Tango, Kyoami and Hidetora.

In the fray, Jack and Saburo were losing the fight. They were both getting small wounds, and Saburo was very tired. Finally, Jack looked up from killing one and saw Nomu and Iz running towards them.

"YES! Finally!" he shouted. He blocked above his head, expecting a blow that never came. Instead, the Panics were flying high, high, into the air again. And screeched. Just in time, Jack threw down the Rose and covered his ears. That dimmed the noise a lot, and the sensation of, well…panic. Saburo was following suit. Now it was the Panics that were getting discouraged, for their mind ploy wasn't affecting their enemies. Letting out an angry howl, the still-hundreds of Panics screamed down to the ground again.

"Saburo!" Jack shouted, and made eye contact with him. Saburo immediately got the message and nodded. They faced opposite directions, Jack, west, and Saburo, east, and jumped backwards so they were back to back. The Panics charged them, and they individually parried them off, spinning and slashing their respective weapons, each covering half of the clock. As this started, Iz and Nomu arrived and started to take some of the heat off of them.

Finally, it was over. Nomu slashed and killed the final Panic, and the sky was clear again. Kyoami, Tango and Hidetora had arrived, and they were all in a brief reunion.

"Father…" Saburo choked out.

"Saburo…my son…" Hidetora said.

Jack looked at them, standing across from each other, just staring. Hidetora had come back to his senses. All was well. Then Saburo fell to the ground, nearly dead.

"MY SON!" Hidetora shouted, and knelt beside him. He wept silently.

"What happened!?" Jack asked in alarm.

"Pure exhaustion. Some people aren't meant for fighting battles like that. His time was short, anyways."

Jack knelt beside Saburo, too. Saburo looked at him.

"Jack…what you said before your men charged at Jiro…"

What had he said? That seemed so long ago. He had said…

"Ran. I meant to say run. What about it?"

"Ran…in one of our language, Ran means chaos. I was just wondering how you knew it…" with that, he died.

There was a moment of silence, then Hidetora held his hand out to Nomu. Nomu silently drew his sword and handed it to Hidetora. Hidetora closed his eyes and held the sword over himself.

"My lord…the Rose."

Hidetora opened his eyes and looked at Jack. "Jack, I am a relation to Samuel the Great."

"What? Who is-"

"Never mind. Just know, that I had acquired the Rose for myself as a young man. I used it to win many wars, but in the end, I ended up killing my own wife with it. I was grief-stricken, and knew I was not worthy to wield such a great weapon. I sealed it away. Just think of me, and it will be yours. There is another gift for you, once you get it. You'll know what do to." With that, Hidetora brought the sword into his stomach. His eyes opened wide, and he fell to the ground. Nomu retrieved his sword.

Jack thought of the old man who he had barely known, yet had taught him so much in such a short space of time. There was a blinding flash of white light, and there was a long Rose with a spiraling thorny vine curling around the stem in Jack's hand. This Rose was slightly longer than the Red one, probably almost five feet long. Its stem was dark purple.

"What will become of your world now that all of the kings and shoguns are dead?" Jack asked Nomu.

"They'll manage. The more important question is about all of the worlds in general."

Jack and Iz nodded. "Tango, by the order of Shogun Nomu, General Jack Brown and Iz of Paradise Islands, you will take full control of this land. Good luck."

Tango sat there stunned. Iz, Nomu and Jack turned and walked away without another word, on the way to another world.

_A few days later…_

Carol fell down on the warm beaches of Paradise Islands. The one named Sugo had taken her. Now he stood above her, staring down with his Guy Fawkes mask.

"Remember, Carol. Find him, kill him, and get back to this beach. You have five hours. If you're late, we will destroy this world to make sure you can't escape."

"What!? You'll destroy an entire world?"

"Don't think we can't. Don't try anything funny, just be here as soon as it's done. You don't want the deaths of over a hundred thousand people on your conscience, do you?"

"I'll be here. Goodbye." Carol took off into the jungle. She ran for nearly twenty minutes when she crashed through the brush into a large clearing that the Capital of Paradise Islands was built. She was immediately surrounded by a quartet of Town Guards.

"Speak your name!"

"I'm Carol. I'm from, uh…Bryn. Is there a man named Iz here?"

"It's her!" one of the men shouted. "Get her!"

The men closed in on Carol, who was too stunned to react. Was she that bad? Then she summoned the White Rose and held it out.

"Ring it!" one of the men shouted. Carol looked up at a large bamboo tower and saw a man ringing a large metal bell. Immediately following, the townspeople scrambled out of shops and houses and converged in the center of the town, while a group of soldiers streamed out of a barracks to Carol's right. She did what Sugo taught her to do if she was in trouble. She held the White Rose in the air and concentrated with all her might. From the Rose, a large burst of flames flew into the air and took the form of a heart. This could be seen for miles around, and it would tell Sugo and hopefully the others that she was in trouble.

"What the hell?"

All of the soldiers stopped, broke formation, and looked into the sky at the flaming heart. Even the villagers stopped scrambling for the Town Center and looked. Then the soldiers collected themselves and charged. Carol screamed and closed her eyes. She wasn't nearly ready to take on an entire army regiment. Right before the soldiers got close enough to attack her, however, a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask crashed through the jungle, holding a Blue Rose. The soldiers looked away, but before they had time to react Sugo was cutting through their line like butter. He had killed three of them in the first second he had started fighting, all taken with one swift blow. He then leapt into the thick of their line, spinning his Rose as he went. Another five men died, and the rest all lunged at Sugo. Sugo jumped into the air and downslashed one of them. This left maybe twenty remaining. Sugo raised his Rose into the air and screamed the word,  
_"Tempesta del lampo!" _Bolts of lightning struck, from the sky, the ground all around him, each one hitting an individual soldier. Sugo remained in the air, hovering, for a full ten seconds until all of the soldiers and guards were nothing but fiery heaps. Then he gently floated to the ground.

"Carol! I knew this was a bad idea! You are worthless! I'll kill you right now!" Sugo screamed. "Except I can't. Fuck. Come with me, I'm just going to destroy this entire world."

"No. I won't let you, you fucking little coward!"

Sugo became quiet. His biggest insecurity was people calling him a coward. He could never tolerate it. Ever. No matter what The Maker's plans were, Carol would die now.

"You little bitch! Never say that again!" Sugo's eyes, his real ones, lit up with fury beyond anything anyone had ever seen before. Carol was lucky he was wearing a mask, because that look really could kill. Sugo charged at her, brandishing his Rose. Carol got ready to fight, but before Sugo could make it to her, she heard a familiar voice call out a familiar word: _"Lampo!"_

"Jack!" Carol looked around. Meanwhile, a single, small bolt of lightning rained from the sky and nailed Sugo square in the back. Sugo did a double-take and fell to the ground. Swearing loudly, he got up and ran again at Carol. This time, Jack leapt from where he was standing and kicked Sugo square in the face. His mask broke, and he fell to the ground, covering his face. He looked up. Carol saw a blue eye was exposed, and from this eye she could tell Sugo was scared. He got up, still covering his face, snapped his fingers, and was gone.

"Carol!" Jack shouted. He ran to her and embraced her. For a second, she stood there. Then her arms went up and embraced him back. There they shared a silent kiss, Iz and Nomu looking on smugly a few yards back.

After a minute of this and they seemed nowhere close to stopping, Iz cleared his throat loudly. "Um, Jack? We kind of have work to do here."

Jack looked up. "Right." He laughed nervously. "Sorry. Carol, this is Nomu," Nomu nodded. "And Iz." Iz waved.

"You're Iz!?" she asked incredulously.

"You're the one they sent to kill me!?" Iz mimicked her tone of voice perfectly.

"Um…yeah, sorry about that. What have you three been doing?"

"We should sit down and talk."

Twenty minutes later, the four were sitting in a coffee shop, telling each other their respective stories. After Jack, Nomu and Iz had left Nomu's world, they had planned on moving immediately to the next one, but had instead decided to go back to Paradise Islands for a pit stop. While there, they had received an ominous message from a robed man with bandages all over his face that said somebody would come in the next few days to kill Iz, and they should wait this person's arrival. Nomu demanded they heed the warning, so they stayed a couple days.

Carol, immediately following Herman Melvin's telling her her mission, was trained to fight by Sugo, and also to cast the magical flaming heart. After that, it was right to work killing Iz. She did not know why they wanted him dead, only that it was VERY important. It took them about an hour each to tell what had happened to each of them, and it was dark by the time they were done. Iz invited Carol to come back and stay with them at his mansion (he had been promoted to Grand General.) Carol accepted.

Later that night, the four were all sitting around the fireplace, sipping wine (Jack and Carol had both accepted the offer of alcohol this time) and discussing their plans for the future. Finally, they decided it was time to go to bed, at around midnight. Jack took Carol by the hand and lead her upstairs to talk for a minute before they went to sleep.

"Carol, I missed you so much. Listen, I need to tell you something. While you were gone, I learned of a tradition called Seppuku, or ritual suicide, practiced in Nomu's world. You being gone caused me to want to kill myself. It was the knowledge that you were alive that kept me going. I just want to say, if we're separated again, that I love you."

Carol just stood there, staring up at Jack for a full five minutes. Then, "I love you too."

Jack smiled and kissed her. Then they both went into Jack's room, into Jack's bed, and did what teenagers do best.

The next morning, Jack got up bright and early, at 7:30. Carol was still sound asleep next to him. He lay there for a minute, thinking. Then he got up silently and went downstairs. To his surprise, Nomu was also up and drinking a glass of tea.

"Morning," he mumbled.

"Good morning, Jack. Did you sleep well?"

Jack paused. "Um…yeah."

"Good."

Jack sat down and asked, "Is there any food we can make without Iz to cook it?"

Iz had cooked all of their food so far, for most the food on Paradise Islands was as alien to them as a car would have been. It was delicious, though.

"There's bread."

"Great," Jack groaned.

"You're right. I wish Iz was up."

"Go wake his ass up!" Jack said, and laughed. Nomu just stared.

"I'm up!" a voice called from behind them. Jack turned around and looked at the doorway, where Iz was standing.

"G'morning," Jack mumbled again.

"It IS a good morning, for you at least."

"What's that mean?" Jack asked. But he knew what was coming.

"You left your door open. I walked by it, and noticed Carol was asleep in it."

"Um…well, you see…okay, you caught me."

"Nice," Iz smiled. Jack grinned at him. "How old are you? Fifteen?"

Jack nodded. Iz grinned. "Wow."

"What are we talking about?" Nomu asked, which prompted Jack and Iz to burst into wild laughter.

"Wow. W-wow. You are-I can't believe…I disown you, Nomu," Iz said seriously. There was a pause, and he and Jack once again started laughing.

"I don't see what's so funny," Nomu said simply.

Iz was about to explain when the foundations of the house were shook by a wild crash.

"It's coming from Town Center!" Nomu shouted. Iz was about to ask how he could possibly know that when there was another crash, larger this time. Chairs fell over, cabinets opened, the chandelier flew off of the ceiling, and Jack and Iz were thrown to the ground. Nomu had already leapt through the window.

"Let's go!" Iz said. He grabbed his spear, which had rolled into the kitchen, and jumped through the hole Nomu had made. Jack ran back to the stairs.

"Carol!?" he shouted.

"I'm up here!" was the reply.

Jack charged up the stairs, pushing over shelves and other loose furniture that was blocking the stairs. Finally he made it to the top. Carol was lying on the ground, underneath the bed, which had toppled over.

"Shit!" Jack kneeled down and put his hands at the bottom of the bed. "Push!" he yelled. Carol pushed up and Jack pulled up. The bed went up a few inches, and Carol pushed herself out. Jack dropped it on the floor, creating a very audible thud.

"What the hell's going on!?" Carol shouted.

"I have no clue!" Jack replied. He took her hand and kissed her. "Are you okay?"

"A little sore, but mostly okay. Not sore from the bed, either."

Jack laughed, but another large crash from outside made him trip. "Let's get out of here!"

They took off down the stairs. Jack pulled out his newest Rose, the dark-pinkish one, while Carol summoned the White Rose. It was an interesting thought that summoned the White Rose, but as soon as she figured out what it was, Carol had sworn to herself that she would never tell anyone what it was. They reached the front door, and Jack kicked it in.

"Why'd you do that?" Carol asked.

"I don't know…I've always wanted to kick a door in." At this point there was another booming crash.

_A few minutes before, in yet another world…_

A high school alternative rock band, the Roundhouse Kicks, was performing at a party. It was made up of Leonardo diBenedetti, lead guitar and vocals, Dewey Virgil on bass and vocals, Kyle Son on keyboard and Teddy Gamble on drums. This was their first performance. They were performing for free at a New Year's eve party, and they had lined up several covers, along with a couple original songs to play. The party was jumping. There were almost nine hundred people there, all juniors at Shermer High School.

Attention should be called to the lead guitar of this band, Leonardo diBenedetti. Called Leo by everyone else at school, he is what would be called a "troubled teen." His parents are going through a divorce. And on top of that, the girl he has loved for almost a year now ignores him. They used to be best friends, but somehow they grew apart. They haven't spoken in almost two weeks. Leo is now in a repressed state of depression. He's finally had enough. It's three in the morning. The party is over, after one last song by the band. Leo got up on stage and said into the mike, "This is our last song for the night. You've been a wonderful crowd. I'd like to dedicate this number to someone who means a lot to me. _My life is brilliant…"_

The music struck up. The song was You're Beautiful by James Blunt. The crowd was loving the song, people rocking back and forth, guys kissing their girls. It almost made Leo stop singing and just cry. But he held on. It was almost over. His hand slowly felt the small lump in his pocket. It was almost time.

During the last couple lines of the song, _"there must be an angel with a smile on her face, when she thought up that I should be with you,"_ Leo made eye contact with the girl. Her name was Erika Baker. She bore an eerie resemblance to a girl who lived in another world named Carol, just as Leo bore an eerie resemblance to a boy named Jack Brown. She looked, amazed, up at him, and he smiled sadly at her. The last two lines of the song are, _But it's time to face the truth…I will never be with you._

The song was over. As soon as everyone started clapping, Leo withdrew a revolver from his pocket, pointed it at his head, and pulled the trigger.

Jack rushed outside, pulling Carol by her hand. He immediately was caught when he looked up and saw a large red orb hovering in the air.

"What is it?" Jack asked. It was pulsing slightly, and blood was dripping from it in many places.

"It's a heart," Carol replied in awe.

The heart pulsed violently, blood spurted from several places on it, and the ground shook with a large BOOM!

"Well, we know what the quakes are from…but what the hell is that?" Iz said. He and Nomu had come up from somewhere behind them.

"I have no clue…do you think it's only in this world?"

"The only thing I know for sure is that if it keeps going it's going to destroy this world," Nomu said. "We must stop it."

"How?"

"I have no idea."

"Me either," answered Carol.

Jack, Carol and Nomu looked at Iz.

"Well, there's an oracle that lives in the mountains on Serenity Isle. We usually go to him for help."

"Who's we?" Nomu asked.

"Nevermind that. I'll get us a boat."

In another world…

"What do we do about that infernal heart?" Tony Accardo asked.

"What is it?" The newest member, Judas Iscariot asked.

"I don't know…I have sent Randal Flagg back to his world to consult his master."

"Are you not his master, my lord?"

"In a way. He is merely a representative of our most senior member, aside from me."

"Who would this be?" Judas asked.

"You are a very inquisitive neophyte…and you still have to prove your worth in battle. Very well. He is called by his followers The Crimson King."

Jack entered the cave of the Oracle with apprehension. The Oracle's name was _Agbala,_ or Sacred One in the original tongue of the Islanders. Iz said he was over a hundred years old.

He definitely looked over a hundred. He was very skinny, probably weighing just over a hundred pounds. Despite this, he was very tall. Jack could count all of his ribs.

Iz whispered to Jack, "He's an ascetic."

"QUIET!" Agbala shouted. Iz lowered his head. The Oracle was standing clad in a dirty loincloth. His face was obscured by a strange mask…Jack recognized the mask.

"You're a member of the Seventeenth!" Jack shouted.

"Jack! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Iz shouted, keeping his head down.

The Oracle started towards Jack. There was a roaring fire in front of him, but he took no notice as he _walked right through the searing bonfire!_

"The Seventeenth is made up of those who do not exist. I exist, child of Samuel."

Jack also bowed his head. If this man, if that was what he was, was truly not a member of the Seventeenth, then why the mask?

"I apologize sincerely, divine one," Jack uttered the apology used in his land when one offended a priest.

The Oracle made a noise with his throat, and turned to Iz. "My chambermaids tell me you have received a promotion. They speak very highly of you, Iz."

"Thank the gods for me, o sacred one." Iz's head was still bowed.

"But what is it you have come to seek? You may raise your head now."

Iz raised his head. Jack started to, but the Oracle yelled, without looking at him, "NOT YOU, BOY!"

Jack kept his head down. "You know of the bleeding heart down above the main isle?" Iz continued.

"Ah, yes…it is a very bad omen. A very bad omen indeed. I know of your quest, Rose Warrior," Agbala said, turning to Jack. "You may raise your head."

Jack did so, and began to speak, but Agbala cut him off. "That heart is very important. It is the heart of a real person who is in grave peril. If he dies, I believe that all hope is lost. Not just for this world, but all others as well."

Iz nodded. "What would you have us do?"

"Jack, Nomu, Iz, continue with your quest as if nothing is wrong. Send the girl to a special world to save the injured person."

"NO!" Carol shouted in despair, upon hearing that she and Jack would be separated again. She started towards the Oracle, but he turned and just looked at her. She froze and backed off.

"You may go now."

"But how do we know which world it is?"

"It'll be the one that doesn't have a large heart floating in the middle of it."

Agbala walked slowly to the back of the cave and disappeared behind a shroud. Jack saw many female figures descend upon him. He turned his head away and walked outside.

They weren't out five seconds when Carol threw herself into Jack's arms, sobbing. Jack stood there, shell-shocked, for he had never seen her like this before. He looked up at Iz, who shrugged, looking exactly how Jack felt. Jack put his harms around her and just held her. Nomu touched Iz's shoulder, and they turned and began walking down the path. Finally they were gone, and Jack said to Carol, "Baby, what's the problem?"

"If you leave me alone again, I'll never see you again," Carol sobbed.

Jack was taken aback. "Why would you think that? It's not like we'll be leaving each other forever."

"It's just a feeling, but I'm sure that if we split up, even if we do see each other again, it won't be the same…you'd leave me, or I'd leave you, or we'd forget about each other…"

They stood there in silence. Then Jack put his hand under her chin, lifted her head up, and kissed her. "I'd never forget you."

She looked up at him, blinking tears out of her eyes. "Promise?"

"I swear on my life."

"Okay…but promise we can spend tonight together?"

"I was planning on it anyways."

Carol smiled. Holding hands, they walked down the slope towards the harbor, ignoring the tremors in the earth.

That night, for some reason the beating of the heart had stilled somewhat, and the crashes were reduced to small vibrations that they barely felt. Iz and Nomu had wisely left to spend the night at an inn. They knew Jack and Carol needed some time alone. Iz had left Jack a very advanced-looking machine he called a "stereo." He'd also left Jack some CD's to put in it, and showed him how to use it. Jack was amazed when he heard music playing from the device.

"It's _very_ expensive, so be careful. It cost me almost as much as this house."

"I'll be careful," Jack said in amazement.

At 9:00 PM., the two were sitting down to a nice, romantic dinner in Iz's dining room. Jack, who had some cooking experience, had made a lavish dinner that consisted of something Iz taught him to make, called a pizza; he had made an old-fashioned steak; a type of noodle called spaghetti; and he had even managed to steal some wine from Iz's cellar. The night went perfectly. They saved the night, delaying their misery by simply forgetting what they had to do the next day. They went through two bottles of wine between them, and decided to stop after that. Then they made a fire in Iz's fireplace, and made love on the couch in the living room. They both fell asleep and woke up in each other's arms. Carol smiled at Jack and he kissed her. Then she turned around and they tried something new.

While they were having the best night/morning of their lives, and Nomu was sleeping soundly in Granny Smith Inn, Iz was standing underneath a very old palm tree, staring out into the ocean, on the beach where Jack and Nomu had first arrived. It was just past midnight.

He had left the inn at ten o'clock, right after Nomu had fallen asleep. He had scribbled a quick note incase Nomu woke up, saying he had gone to visit his girlfriend. He actually did. He walked across the town and into the slums, where he spent half an hour looking for her shack. He finally found it. She was awake.

"Sandra?" he called from outside. She appeared at the door, wearing a tattered shawl. Iz almost cried. She had lost weight since he had last seen her. She was among the few poverty-stricken people on Paradise Island, making her of the lowest social class in the Caste System, called by the government the Kaiser system. Her net worth, deemed by the government, was less than 15 shells (15 dollars.) Iz's was over three million. He was of the second-highest class, so it was illegal for her to live with him, or for them to be married. Though there were many political activist organizations working to abolish the hated Kaiser system, it had persisted. Iz gave these organizations money whenever he could spare it, but to no avail. Although technically Iz could be dishonorably discharged (and possibly jailed; she would be sentenced to death) from the Chief's Special Forces for being romantically involved with her, most of Iz's colleagues turned a blind eye towards he and Sandra.

She ran to him, and he engulfed her mouth in a kiss immediately. He unsung the package he had carried with him from his shoulder, and gave it to her. She opened it. It was full of ten-piece shells.

"Oh my God, Iz…you shouldn't-"

"I have to. I love you, Sandra, and I can't stand to see this happen to you."

Sandra could barely pay rent for her shack, and if evicted, would be arrested and jailed for being homeless. Paradise Islands was actually the exact opposite to the lower-class citizens.

Iz and Sandra went back into her shack and made love. Then Iz told her that their problems were almost over. She asked how that could be, and Iz replied he had made a deal with a man named Tony Accardo, who had promised to use his political influence and raw power to force the government to make changes. He told her that soon she would be able to move in with him. All he had to do is kill Jack Brown.

Iz mulled over this. He really liked Jack, and Carol and Nomu. Could he do it? He thought of Sandra. Then he thought of the love Jack had for Carol, and how much he really liked her. He thought of the father-son relationship Nomu and Jack seemed to be forming, and how much he had been counting Nomu as his best friend. Could he do that to them? Could he do it to Jack?

He had no doubt that he physically _could_ kill Jack. All he had to do was stab him in the back at the right moment, and he and Sandra would live happily ever after. But he very much doubted his heart was in it. No, he could not do it. When Accardo's man got here, he just had to tell him the deal's off.

"Iz. Tell me, how goes your mission?"

Iz whirled around. There was a tall robed figure standing right behind him.

"How the devil did you-"

The man put his hood down and bared his teeth at Iz. Iz gasped. The man had fangs dripping blood. "My name is Judas. How goes your mission?"

Iz almost ran, but he regained his composure and said, "Tell Accardo the deal's off. I can't do this."

"Oh, I'm afraid you can do it. For if you don't…" Judas trailed off. He gestured behind Iz. Iz looked around, and saw Sandra lying on the ground, bleeding.

"YOU BASTARD!" Iz shouted. He had brought no weapon.

"You shouldn't have gone to visit her."

Iz ran to her and turned her body over. She was alive, that was good. Iz noticed two small holes in her neck, dripping blood.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER!?" Iz shouted.

"Settle down, she'll live. Do you know what a vampire is?"

"What, you mean to tell me you're a vampire?"

"Not a vampire, THE vampire. I am also known as Dracula." Iz just stood there, stunned. This man was insane. "Soon, she will be one, too. Oh, and I want you to know, I did to her what you humans called 'fucking.'"

Iz's fists were clenched. If he had a weapon, he would surely kill this man, if that's what he truly was. "What do you want me to do?"

"Fulfill your end of the bargain, and we'll give her the antidote. She'll be back to normal, with all of her memories. Deal?" Judas held his hand out.

Iz paused. "Deal." he said. "But it will take some time."

"You have all the time in the world. In the meantime, she'll be safe." With this, Judas snapped his fingers, and he and Sandra were gone.

"Sandra…" Iz said. He turned and walked back towards town.

Meanwhile, in The Fortress, fifteen of the seventeen members of The Seventeenth were in a meeting.

"That is not the issue, you fool! Why does it matter who kills him? All we need to make sure of is that they fail! Who it is will be revealed to us in good time!" Webb, who had the rank of 5, was saying to Sugo.

"Or, we could find out who it is, and take care of him. That'll be the quickest and easiest way," Sugo responded calmly.

"Then they just send another person! You are a fool to think they'll give up after one try!"

"Enough," Herman Melvin said. "Here's the plan. Sugo, you work on who it is. Webb, tail Jack from a distance and make sure he's safe. I, meanwhile, will take an army of Emos and attack the CAD compound, creating a diversion. I'll send Kevin on his first mission. He'll capture one of the CAD members and bring him to us. We'll figure out, through interrogation and/or torture, why they want Jack dead in the first place. Gentlemen, meeting adjourned. Sugo, send for Kevin to meet me tomorrow morning at 9."

The next morning, Jack and Carol said their goodbyes. They partook in a very long kiss that embarrassed Iz and Nomu while they sat there waiting at the cave where they could leave this world.

They finally broke up, and Carol gave Iz and Nomu a hug, respectively.

"Take care of yourself, girl," Iz said.

"Goodbye, and may God be with you," Nomu said.

Carol thanked them. Jack summoned the Green Rose and tapped the wall. The emblem of the Rose appeared, and the four of them walked into the wall and found themselves on the platform. Carol immediately turned towards a door with a picture of a large, bustling city on it. The tallest building in the city dwarfed the rest of them. On the top, it had two large spires.

"This is it. I can tell," Carol said philosophically.

"I trust you."

Nomu walked towards the animated door, with the flashing lights. "Here is next." He opened it with his sword, and he and Nomu walked inside. Jack looked at Carol again, and saw she was crying.

"Hey, it's alright. I'll see you soon, OK?"

She nodded. Jack kissed her again, and walked through the door.

He found himself, Nomu, and Iz inside an illuminated hallway filled with flashing lights. There was the definite smell of blood in the air, and they could hear the low growls of creatures they didn't even want to fathom.

"So…what do we do?" Jack asked.

"I don't know…OH MY GOD!" Iz shouted, and pointed behind Jack. Jack whirled around, and almost had a heart attack.

What he saw could be classified as nothing less than a demon. It was about seven feet tall, and had white spikes jutting out of it's shoulders. It was humanoid other than the fact that it was completely brown, had leathery skin, and glowing red eyes. It growled at Jack and lifted its hand. He was rooted to that spot in fear. The thing swung its hand at them, as if it was throwing something. It did. A searing fireball appeared out of nowhere and hurled towards them. Jack summoned the Purple Rose and deflected it. The thing raised it's arm back again, but it's head was blown off in an explosion of blood from behind it. Jack looked back and saw a man in a green combat uniform, holding a pistol. He was wearing a helmet that obscured his face.

"Can you speak?" he asked.

"Yes. I'm Jack Brown."

"Nomu."

"Iz."

"You guys have weird-ass names." He pulled his helmet off, revealing blue eyes. His hair was a buzz-cut, and it was blonde. "Corporal Flynn Taggart, USMC." He held out his hand. Nomu took it and shook.

"What's USMC?" Iz asked

Flynn started. "You don't know? Are you lab workers?"

"No…um…well, I guess we should tell you our story." Jack said.

And they did.

"What do you take me for, a moron?" Flynn demanded.

"No. I swear it's true."

"Well…I suppose weirder things have been happening." Flynn sighed and patted his pistol he had put in his holster.

"What _is_ happening?" Jack asked. The smell, the growls, the monster…this couldn't be right.

"Let me start at the beginning. USMC stands for United States Marine Corps. I'm a member who was fighting in the squadron of Lieutenant Weems, but that fat pig was a rotten bastard. He ordered me to kill this man…this unarmed, innocent civilian. Instead, I punched that bastard in the face. So, I was transferred here to clean up and look after the UAC workers. UAC stands for the Union Aerospace Corporation. This base you're standing in is located on Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. These UAC guys were on to something big…something about ancient Martian ruins and a portal of some sort…anyways, they created a technology to instantly teleport people from one place to another. Transportation between this base and the one on Deimos was easy as hell. This tripled the research capacity. But…a few hours ago, we got a call from Phobos saying Deimos had disappeared from their radars. We double-checked, and it was gone. Then Lieutenant Garrett, who was in charge at Phobos, started yelling, "There's something' fraggin' evil comin' outta' the portal! Requesting military assistance immediately!" We heard gunshots and screams, along with growls…soon we lost all contact with them. They got all of the marines on Mars to meet at the main base. They armed us and sent us to Phobos…but they made me wait outside the base because I had the lowest rank. They left me with nothing but this fuckin' pistol…anyways, I heard their screams on my radio…soon they were all dead. I had no choice…I couldn't fly that transport. So I went in…there were some humans…but not really. They were green and rotting, they smelled like sour lemons…I thought they needed help but one of them shot at me. I took them out, but then I saw one of the brown things…I killed him and finally moved on to the next sector of the base…when I met up with you guys. You don't know what's going on either, do you?"

"Wow…that story just blows ours away," Iz said in amazement.

"Lemme see that thing again," Jack demanded. Flynn stepped back and Jack turned the monster over to see it's body. "I've seen this before! In the religious texts at my church! They made us take a class on demons, and there was a picture of one of these…it's called an Imp!"

"No kiddin'?" Flynn asked. He was about to speak again when he was cut off by a loud roar from the next room.

"What the hell!?" Jack exclaimed.

Flynn whipped his gun out and made a shushing gesture. He crept towards a large section of the wall that was a lighter shade of gray than the others. He pressed his hand to a hand-shaped panel of the wall and the door slid open. Immediately Flynn was taken down by a large pink blur.

"What the hell!?" Jack exclaimed as the Purple Rose appeared in his hand. Iz poised his spear and threw it at the pink blur. It nailed it, the pink monster was thrown on its side. It recovered and charged at them. Jack got a look at it's face. It had glowing yellow eyes and sort of resembled a pig. It had very large teeth and a muscular body. Jack screamed and raised the Rose. The thing was nearly five feet away when Flynn shot it twice in the back with his pistol. It stopped, confused, and turned towards Flynn.

"This thing's a moron, we can kill it!" Iz exclaimed. "Jack, do something!"

"Right!" Jack ran at it, but it was hopeless. The thing was fast. Flynn was shooting at it, but the pistol barely slowed it down.

Jack brandished the Rose at the thing and screamed, _"Lampo!"_ A single bolt of lightning appeared about an inch below the ceiling, and rained down on the pink monster. It stumbled, roaring in pain. Flynn had reloaded and was emptying the cartridge into it. Finally, it quit. The pink monster fell to the ground and died.

"What's this one called?" Flynn asked, breathing heavily.

"Um…I've never seen this one before."

"Then it's a pinky demon."

Nomu laughed, which made Iz and Jack laugh. Flynn chuckled, more to fit in then because it was funny.

"So what's the plan?" Jack asked.

"Make it out of here, I guess. I have no clue how, though."

Flynn turned and began walking back the way he'd come from. "Are you coming?" he asked. Jack, Nomu and Iz immediately followed.

They walked in silence for about an hour. The growls got steadily louder, and they smelled blood. Finally they came upon what Flynn called a door. To the other three it looked like another wall, but when they got close enough it slid open.

A horrifying sight greeted them. There seemed to be a small army of Imps, standing in formation. Floating in the center of them was a

"Cacodemon!" Jack shouted without thinking. The Imps and the Cacodemon all turned towards them.

"Jack!" Iz shouted.

"Sorry."

All of the Imps gave a roar in unison, and swung their arms back over their shoulders.

Twenty fireballs spewed at the heroes at once. Nomu shouted _"Schermo!"_ and brandished his sword in front of them. The fireballs were ten feet away and coming fast.

Right before they hit, Nomu leapt forward. All of the fireballs seemed to explode in midair.

"Shield spell," Nomu muttered.

"What the hell?" Flynn stuttered in bewilderment.

"I'll explain later." Nomu leapt at the demons, who had just launched another volley. He cut one out of the way, and jumped over the rest; he landed in front of the nearest Imp and cut him down.

"Let's help!" Jack shouted. He charged, Iz following close behind. Flynn drew his pistol, clutched it in two hands, and shot at the nearest Imp. He hit it in the shoulder. It turned to him and fired a fireball. Flynn dove to his left; the fireball missed him by a few feet. He raised the pistol and shot three times into the same Imp. Every bullet hit its target, the Imp crumpled to the floor, dead. Then a foul stench reached his nostrils…

Flynn whirled around and faced the zombie. It was a former marine, and he was toting a large shotgun. Flynn dove just as the shell shattered the tile where he'd been standing not a second ago. Flynn put the muzzle of the pistol right next to the head of the zombie and pulled the trigger. The head exploded in a splash of red,, and Flynn caught the riot gun before it hit the ground. It was an eight-shooter, a pump. Four shots in it. Flynn swung around, aimed it at the nearest Imp, and fired. The Imp's head exploded, and it fell to the ground. Flynn aimed at another and fired. This time he hit it square in the chest. It stood there for a second, then fell down dead. He was on a roll. He aimed at another and was about to fire when a fireball exploded about an inch in front of his feet. This one was bigger than the others, and it had come from above.

The explosion sent him to the ground, but his steel cleats had protected his feet from the splash damage. His eyes went up and he saw what Jack called a Cacodemon. It was red and round, and had one large green eye and a smirking mouth.

"Holy shit!" Flynn shouted, and he rolled over, swinging the shotgun around. He pointed it up, straight into the beast's mouth. It opened its mouth, and spit another fireball. Flynn squeezed the trigger, and the shell fragments broke the fireball. Flynn pumped the gun frantically and fired again. The fragments flew upwards and drove themselves into the Cacodemon. The thing was barely fazed. It spit another fireball at Flynn, who rolled over again and drew the pistol. He pointed it up and fired straight into the monster's eye, but it closed it. The bullet seemed to get stuck in the eyelid, for Flynn saw blood drip down. After, it opened its eye again. Flynn fired the last three bullets into it and tried to reload. He dropped the clip.

"Shit!" he dove to the ground again for the clip, narrowly avoiding another fireball. He pressed the button that emptied the pistol, and put the new clip in. He started towards the Cacodemon, but slipped on the old clip and was back on his ass.

"Smooth, Flynn," he said to himself. Then he leapt to his feet and shot at the Cacodemon. It was bleeding freely from several places now, but showed no signs of slowing. Finally, ten bullets later, it fell from the air, making a low grunting noise as it died. Flynn got up and saw Nomu stab the final Imp through the stomach with his sword. He raised the Imp in the air, then wrenched the sword sideways. It made a nice clean cut, ending the Imp's life.

"Is everyone okay?" Flynn asked.

"I got burned a little, but other than that I'm okay," Jack said. "Nomu, what was with that shield thing?"

"It's the same principle as your lightning spell. Metallica is a very potent material for magic. I learned many spells while I was studying the ways of the warrior."

"Why didn't you show us before?"

"Lord Hidetora had strict rules against using it unless it's an emergency. Not much he can do about it now, though, right?"  
"No there is not. Jack, what'd you say that big thing was called?" Iz asked.

"Cacodemon. By the Man Jesus, all Hell's broken loose!"


	4. IV

-1"You can say that again. What the hell do we do now? We're almost at the last sector of the Phobos base. If we can't find some kind of transport soon, we're screwed."

"Let's keep looking. C'mon."

The quartet continued on their way, occasionally passing a zombie or an Imp. Once they were attacked and had to run from a Pinky Demon, but they found some stairs that it couldn't follow them up. Flynn picked up more shotgun shells, and even found what he called a chain gun. Finally, they reached what Flynn said was one of the teleportation devices that the researchers had invented.

"This'll take us to the last part of the base. Just walk on the platform, okay?"

Nomu nodded and walked inside. Jack and Iz gasped as he disappeared in a flash of green. Then they followed.

Taking the slipgate was not as hard as one might think. It was virtually painless and lasted under a second. In no time the quartet was inside a small brick room with no windows or doors.

"Well this is just great. Where the fuck are we?" Jack groaned.

"Wait. This isn't right…they don't use bricks up here."

Suddenly, one of the walls began to shudder. Nomu drew his sword at the noise. Then the wall slid up. What greeted them could only be described as macabre. There was a large pentagram-shaped platform adorning the floor, and on this platform was a large number of Pinky Demons and Imps. Their backs were facing the quartet, because they were all gazing, transfixed, at a crucified demon on the wall. The demon had a pink body, a bull face, goat legs, and bull horns.

"Jesus Christ…" Jack muttered.

"Time to crash this party!" Flynn shouted. As the demons were turning around to see what the noise was, Flynn unslung his chain gun, held it in his two hands, and began firing. The belt-fed gun quickly dried up, but Flynn loaded another one fast, before the demons could make it to them. After the second belt, they were all dead.

"This is some pretty jacked up shit," Flynn said softly, shaking his head. The room below was a bloodbath, literally. The quartet hurriedly walked across it, turning their shoes, and in Nomu's case feet, red. They were now in a red-brick hallway. They silently crossed it and came upon a brightly lit room. There were two darker rooms to their left and right.

"Iz and Jack, you take left. Nomu, we'll take right."

Everyone nodded and went their separate ways. Iz's stupid side said, "Now's your chance!" as he walked behind Jack. But no. He had to wait for the opportune moment, when Nomu couldn't suspect it was him. He could wait. Sandra could wait.

The two walked into the room. It was dark and empty.

"Phooie. Alright, Jack, let's roll."

Jack nodded and went back to the bright room. There was another, much larger hallway to their left, but first they'd keep going to the room Flynn and Nomu were in. When they were a few yards away, they heard a shotgun blast and a roar, so they broke into a run. When they got inside, they found Nomu cutting down an Imp and Flynn grappling with a Pinky Demon. The muzzle of his shotgun was in its mouth, and he was struggling to pump it. Finally he did, and pulled the trigger. The thing's brains flew out the back of its head, and it died.

"How come you guys got the cool room?" Iz asked jokingly. Flynn laughed and they left the room. Somehow there was another Pinky Demon in the bright room. Flynn put it down with two shots from his shotgun, and the quartet went into the large hallway. It was made of stone, and at the end there was a door. A monumentally large door. The only problem was the door was raised about ten feet off the ground. As they approached it, however, the floor began to raise in a staircase.

"Nifty!" Iz exclaimed. They got to the top, and were not surprised when the doorway opened automatically. It was an old-fashioned wooden door.

The room was huge. It had five hallways all around it, each one leading to a dead end. They got narrower as they went out. The walls, ceiling and floor were all blood-red. Jack stood in amazement as he realized what he was in: the room was in the shape of a giant pentagram.

In the center was a small building. There were two doors adjacent to each other.

"Let's check that out," Jack said. They started towards it, but when they got close the doors slid open. Out of each one came the beast they had seen crucified earlier. But this time there were two of them, and they were alive. They stood at about ten feet tall and there roar shook the building.

"HOLY FUCK!" Flynn shouted. The quartet scattered. They were all too scared to get close to the monsters, so it was up to Flynn to kill them. That was assuming they could be killed.

As if that wasn't enough, hordes of Pinky demons streamed from the hallways. The quartet met back up behind the building, and formed a circle, their backs to each other.

"Time to fight!" Nomu said.

"I'll take the big asses. You three are crowd control." Flynn commanded.

All three shouted, "YES CORPORAL!" Flynn smiled to himself, pumped his shotgun and darted back to face the beasts. Jack, Iz and Nomu charged into the Pinky Demons.

They met the main line head-on. Jack swung the Purple Rose into the nearest one. It connected, and the demon fell to the ground snarling. Another was soon on him. As the thing's maw came upon him, he stuck the Purple Rose into it. The beast choked and fell, and Jack hit it on its head with a crushing blow. But there were more. Tons more.

"Hey, kid. I'll worry about the fags later. You guys need help. Let's go!" Flynn shouted from behind him. Jack didn't reply, he was too busy surviving hordes of pink demons. One would leap at him; he would parry it away and bash another one on the head, just to have the first one attack him again. Jack needed to try something new. He focused his mind…

There was a blinding flash of white light in which all of the Pinky Demons were temporarily blinded, and sat stunned. In the center was Jack, holding the Purple Rose in his right hand and the Green Rose in his left.

"Well done, Jack." Nomu smiled to himself, then drove his blade into the head of a nearby Pinky, the blade disappearing up to the hilt. His sword was red with blood.

Jack was angry. Holding both Roses seemed to do that to him, he didn't understand why. All he understood at the moment was he wanted to kill all of the demons, needed to bring death to every single one. He got started, spinning and hacking every which way. He heard Flynn's gun going off numerous times. He'd killed tons already, but they'd barely left a dent in the horde. Then, another of those infernal fireballs hit right next to him and exploded. It was larger even than the Cacodemon's. He looked for the source, and found it was one of the giants. Normally he'd have run, but he could take this fiend. He jumped at it just as it threw another fireball. He couldn't fly; it hit him. Searing with pain and seething with anger, he was thrown into the wall, which he bounced off of. He should be dead, but this barely fazed him. Now the other giant was throwing balls at him. He charged at them, darting left and right around the fireballs. Then the beasts got a little smarter, and coordinated their shots together. It was slowing him down; he was still a hundred yards away or more. Now he couldn't dodge; he slashed the Roses through the fireballs, cutting through them like butter. This worked, but it still slowed him down. Now they started firing in bursts of two at a time, still coordinating their shots. When four gigantic fireballs were about to come crashing into him, he jumped, doing a flip over them. When he was directly over the balls, he downslashed the Roses, sending the balls flying in all different directions. He landed right in front of the giants and began to fight.

Meanwhile, Flynn was having problems of his own. Without a melee weapon he couldn't defend himself. He was also out of ammo for everything except that infernal pistol. He dodged around, using the little martial arts he knew from his childhood, shooting bullets one at a time, using them only as stopping power. He was so involved he didn't see the fireball heading straight for him until it was almost too late. It hit about three feet from him and sent him flying. He landed right next to the corpse of Tex Davis, one of his fellow marines. So, he thought, some of them DID make it this far. Clutched in Tex's hand was a

"CHAINSAW!" Flynn shouted with glee. The Pinky Demons had almost smothered him by now; one was on top of him. Flynn's right hand was holding it back. With his left hand, his dominant hand, he reached for the saw. Finally he got it. He kicked the demon off of him, grasped the pull tug in his left hand, and revved the engine. An evil grin came on his face as the engine sputtered to life. The demon leapt at him, but he drove the saw into it's mouth. The beast whined and died.

"Okay you bastards, who's next!?" he shouted, slicing the stomach of another open.

Jack had immediately thrown the Purple Rose at the first giant, it had glanced off, drawing blood. He leapt into the air, caught the rebounding Rose in his right hand, and swung the Green Rose into the thing's face. He hit it with such force that the beast was thrown back twenty feet into the wall. It slowly got to its feet. Jack faced the next one, deflected a fireball, raised both Roses in the air and shouted _"LAMPO!" _He'd been taught by Saburo to not focus his entire being into an attack, but he did so anyways. The double Roses amplified the spell into something that dwarfed in comparison Sugo's. Hundreds of lightning bolts, each larger than the beast itself, rained down from the skies. It fried the giant and the Pinky Demons alive; there were nothing but ashen heaps left afterwards. The bad news is that Jack collapsed afterwards. Flynn had gone back to help Jack. Just as the second beast was about to throw a fatal fireball at Jack, Flynn leapt up at it, holding the chainsaw out. It made a cut against the thing's stomach, cutting it open. But the beast did not stop. By now Iz and Nomu were helping Jack to safety. Iz threw his spear into the beast. It barely felt it. Flynn, Nomu and Iz ran to one of the hallways. There was the corpse of another marine at the end.

"Flynn! He has a weapon!" Iz shouted. Flynn whirled around and checked the marine. Mickey Salamon. A rocket launcher was on the body.

"Gimme that!" he shouted. Iz picked up the launcher and threw it to Flynn, who had set the chainsaw down. The launcher was loaded. He held the trigger in his left hand with the but resting on his shoulder.

"Don't stand behind me!" he shouted. They moved and he fired. The rocket soared into the beast's open stomach. It finally died. Flynn collapsed laughing.

"WHOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" he shouted. "Yeah! Are you guys alright?"

Nomu nodded and Iz gave a thumbs-up. Jack was still unconscious. Flynn checked his pulse.

"Fuck! His heart-rate is low, he needs meds!"

The other three watched in bewilderment as Flynn scooped Jack up and began frantically searching for something.

"No med kits! SHIT!" he shouted. Then his eye caught something in the building the giants had come out of. It was blue and floating; it had a smiling face in it. A sphere shape. He was drawn to it; it was in the compartment on the left. He got inside, reached his hand out and touched it. It immediately exploded into a thick blue liquid which crawled its way up Flynn's arms and covered his whole body. He felt completely recharged. His energy returned; he felt minor cuts and abrasions heal up perfectly. A scar on his forehead that he'd had since he was 14 disappeared. He took Jack into the other compartment, praying there was another one. There was! He dropped Jack on it, and in no time Jack was awake and feeling 100 better.

"What happened?" he asked. Nomu and Iz had seen the blue sphere work its magic on Jack. Flynn explained.

"Okay…so what do we do now?"

"I want my chainsaw back," Flynn stated. Without waiting for a reply he started back towards the corner where he'd left it. The smoldering remains of the giant were still smoking near them. Flynn returned, toting the chainsaw. "What now?"

Before any of them could answer, the walls shook and began to raise.

"There it is."

"Wait, what should we call those things?"

"How about Hell Knights?" Iz suggested.

"That's crap. Ooh, I've got it! Barons of Hell," Jack replied.

"That's not bad," Flynn said. "Barons of Hell it is."

The landscape outside was bleak. Brown earth with a fiery red sky. There was a single building in the midst of all the nothing. The quartet jumped down from the building on to the cold Martian surface.

"This is wrong…the pressure. You three should be dead."

"Good thing we're not. Let's go."

They walked to the building. Unsurprisingly, the door slid open for them as soon as they got close. Inside, however, was the one thing they wanted to see least in the world. A horde of the pink giants.

"Oh my God!" Iz shouted. The beasts let out a savage roar and volleyed a hundred fireballs. They all tried to dodge and block, but to no avail. The four heroes were incinerated.

Jack woke up naked in a cold, metal room. Nomu, Iz and Flynn were all lying near him, also naked. They too were waking up. They surveyed each other, realizing they'd lost their clothes. Jack got up and covered himself, so did Iz and Flynn. Nomu made no attempt.

"Nomu!" Iz shouted.

"What?"

"You may not have realized, but your robes are gone."

Nomu looked down, realized what had happened, and covered himself. "I apologize. Those robes are weightless, I can't feel them even when they are on."

For some reason, they all had their weapons. Even Flynn's chainsaw had remained with them.

"Where do we get some clothes?" Jack asked. The stench of rotten lemons crept up his nostrils, but he couldn't cover them.

"Zombies! They have clothes!" Flynn shouted.

"No way. If you think I'm gonna wear clothes that've been on a dead guy, you're out of your mind!" Iz shouted.

"Fine, go naked. I'm gonna get some clothes." Flynn seized the chainsaw and darted out of the room. Jack took a look around. The walls were adorned with flashing lights and numbers and symbols that meant nothing to him. They heard a grunt from the halls, the revving of the chainsaw, a sickening splatter, and after a few minutes Flynn came back in in full clothes, and toting a new pistol.

"Look what I found!" Iz exclaimed. The wall where he was sitting was jutting out. It was a drawer.

"Clothes!"  
Jack and Iz looked at each other for a second and burst out laughing. Flynn's face got red. "Laugh it up," he muttered.

For the next few minutes, they silently got dressed. Jack was pulling on a pair of pants Flynn called jeans, and he'd put on a t-shirt that read "Save Water" and right below that, "Drink Beer". He thought the shirt was hilarious.

Iz was wearing jeans too, but his were darker. His was a plain red long-sleeve shirt, a little tight.

Nomu's dressing experience could only be described as funny. He first pulled a pair of jeans on, but he found them so uncomfortable that he tripped. So he put on what Flynn called sweatpants, which seemed to work. It also seemed he'd never worn a t-shirt before, so when he put it on his head came out one of the arms. Iz burst out laughing, and went to help him.

"Don't you want new clothes? Those must be disgusting," Jack asked.

"I fought for these, and by God, I am going to wear them."

Jack shrugged. "Wait…we fucking died! Where are we?"

It dawned on them what had happened. "We're on the Deimos base. I don't have a clue why…we did die!"

They paused for a minute, then Flynn said, "Well, let's not just sit here. Maybe we didn't die. Let's keep looking for a transport."

They agreed to keep going. They passed out of the room into a hallway. Jack noticed the naked dismembered body and gagged. Since his sheath was gone, Nomu carried his sword in a battle stance. So when they turned the corner he was the first one to cut down an Imp after they were ambushed. There were several Imps and an entire regiment of zombies. Jack summoned the Purple Rose and attacked the nearest Imp while Iz threw his spear into one. He then jumped over to it and retrieved his weapon. Nomu slashed a fireball out of his way and put down another Imp.

Jack heard several shots ring out. Thankfully, none of them were hit, for the zombies had terrible aim. But it was only a matter of time. Flynn sprang into action. Holding the pistol in both hands, he emptied his clip into the regiment. He only brought down one or two. He reloaded and aimed. Fired one round. It blew up one zombie's head. Fired another. _POP! _went the zombie. Another and another went down. He killed ten zombies with ten bullets. There were only two left. He put one down, and Jack threw the Rose at the other, killing it. They were at another dead end, however.

"There's a slipgate over there," Jack said. He took off towards the corner of the room, and everyone followed.

"Indeed there is. Okay, I'll go first." Flynn disappeared in a green flash. Jack followed, then Iz, then Nomu.

The four found themselves in an almost identical room to the one they'd just come from. The only difference were the inhabitants. Instead of zombies and Imps, there was a Cacodemon. Flynn shot it down with six shots from his new shotgun he'd picked off of a zombie in the previous room.

"Well? Now what?"

"Over there!" Flynn said, pointing to a section of wall that was a shade darker then the rest. He got to it, pulled out his pistol and shot. The wall slid up to reveal a room who's walls were a shade of tan. There was a door at the end, and a Cacodemon spitting fireballs at them. They scattered left and right, Flynn shooting at it. Jack struggled to his feet, Rose in hand, and leapt at the Caco. The demon had it's back turned to him, it was preoccupied with Flynn. Jack leapt at it and kicked it in the back. It flew about five feet forward and spun around. Jack was there, and he swung the Rose into it's eye. This killed it.

"These things are child's play. Let's go."

They walked to the door, and it slid open. All of them had let their guard down, save for Flynn. So when the door opened and they heard the Imp's hiss, Flynn was the one to shoot it down with a shot to the chest from his shotgun. The room had four walls, and there was a slipgate against the wall; and a big sign over it that read "exit."

Without speaking, the four went on to the next sector of the base.

They arrived in something akin to a warehouse; there were stacks of boxes as high as the ceiling, all with the letters UAC stamped on them. Several Imps were their welcome party, Flynn used up the rest of his shells taking them out. The chainsaw was strapped to his back.

"I'm out of ammo," he muttered.

Something caught Jack's eye on top of one of the crates.

"Flynn, there's another shotgun up there."

Flynn looked up and smiled. "Thanks."

He walked over and climbed up. He took the shotgun. "It's loaded! I'm just gonna take this one."

Nomu nodded. "I must say, I never would have thought that guns in other worlds, hell, anywhere, could be so advanced. Back in my world, or what's left of it, our guns held one shot and weren't very accurate. But what really astounds me is how fast you can reload them."

"Well, I've had a lot of training, but yeah, our guns are a long way from the arquebi of your time-uh-world."

Their conversation was cut off by an explosion right next to where Iz was standing. They looked around, two Imps had come from behind the crates. Nomu was on them faster than any of them had time to react at all, and had cut them both down before Jack could even summon a Rose.

"I think you're faster with your sword than I am with my guns," Flynn noted.

"I've had a lot of training," Nomu replied.

Their conversation was cut short with more growls from behind the crates. Nomu immediately swung around to face the new Imps, while Jack summoned the Rose and Iz brandished his spear threateningly.

"Where the hell are they coming from!?" Flynn shouted, putting a shotgun round into the nearest one.

"This isn't working!" Jack called. He was deflecting fireballs with the newly-renamed Violet Rose (he had remembered from Art class that purple was really called violet). There were about four Imps, all taking cover behind one large crate. He was doing his best to hit a fireball back at them, but so far to no avail.

Nomu was dodging fireballs left and right, charging at the Imps. He leapt over the crate they were hiding behind, landed on one's shoulders, and decapitated two others with one slash. The one he landed on crumpled, he drove his sword into its stomach. The final Imp was distracted with Jack, and did not know what hit it when its lungs (did it have lungs?) were pierced by Nomu's sword. Flynn, Jack and Iz ran to catch up with him.

"This isn't working," Flynn said matter-of-factly. "We need to split up and clear this section of the base."

"Excellent idea!" Nomu exclaimed. "Groups of two?"

"No," Iz cut him off. "Let's split completely up. We can cover more ground that way."

"Alright," Nomu said with just a trace of suspicion in his voice. "How'll we know where and when to meet back up again?"

"Radio!" Flynn blurted. "Here, I'll give you all my spares." Flynn withdrew from his pack four small black rectangles, with antennae on top. Of course, Jack, Iz and Nomu did not know what antennae were. He pressed a button on each one and handed them out. "I put them all on channel 17," Flynn said. "It seemed appropriate. Alright, click the button repeatedly to signal us, then hold it down to talk. Oh, and you have to say over when you're done, and release the button."

Jack, Iz and Nomu each took one and pocketed them. Then they went their separate ways.

Jack went down the row of crates the Imps had been coming from. There was another awaiting him; he swung the Violet Rose at it; the Imp went flying beyond the boxes.

All four of them continued like this, fighting through various places. Everyone, save for Flynn, ignored the various weapons and ammunition they found along the way.

Nomu was running through a long hallway that had ceiling traps every ten feet or so; portions of the wall were attempting to crush him. There were also several Imps and Pinky Demons at the other end coming towards him; however, they were not smart enough to avoid the crushing ceilings, and they were all killed before they could be any threat to him.

Finally, he made it to the room at the end. There was a red card lying on the ground at the end, guarded by a Cacodemon, three Imps and two Pinky Demons. He immediately leapt at the Caco and drove his sword into its eye, killing it. The Imps volleyed at him, but all missed. The Pinky Demons were charging, and Nomu charged back at them. He double-slashed one across the head and front legs, disorienting it, then he stabbed the other through the mouth. Using this one as a shield, he turned to face the Imps. They were fireballing at him, however the fireballs harmlessly hit the dead Pinky Demon. The Imps gave up on this strategy and moved towards him.

Nomu waited until they were about five feet from the Pinky Demon, then he kicked it off of his sword into them. It flew off and sent them flying to the ground. Nomu ran to the Imps, who were trying to heave their dead companion off of them, and he decapitated all three with one swipe of his blade. Then he turned towards the first Pinky, who was stumbling on the ground. Nomu threw his sword into it, killing it. He pocketed the red card, and retrieved his blade. There was another doorway on the wall to his right, which he made for. Inside were three Cacos and several zombies. The zombies were toting shotguns and rifles, and they began shooting at him milliseconds after he had dove to the right.

_"Schermo!"_ he shouted, brandishing his sword at them. The bullets, shells and fireballs bounced off, and Nomu leapt in the air, doing a front-flip, and landing in front of the zombies. He slashed left and right, and soon three were dead. He heard one behind him, and he jabbed his sword behind him, stabbing through it. He swung it around; the zombie flew off of the sword into one of the Cacos. The other Cacodemon spit a fireball at him, which he blocked with his sword. He started to move towards the Cacos, but when he was about ten feet from them he realized they were floating over a pit of a foul-smelling green liquid. No way in hell he was falling into _that_ shit. Nomu chuckled to himself as he realized that some of Iz was rubbing off on him. Then a fireball to the chest brought him back to earth (or Deimos); and he was thrown into the brick wall behind him. Coughing blood, shuddering and heaving for breath, he scolded himself for letting his guard down. Now he could never win, he needed to rest. His shirt was completely burned off.

Nomu's eye caught a wrought-iron door at the other end of the pit, gray with red trim. He knew what had to be done; he made a run for the pit, dodging fireballs that exploded on the ground to his left and right. At the edge he leapt.

Nomu had expected the door to slide open for him as he approached, as the others had done. No dice. He hit it with almost full force (the pit was only a couple yards across) and almost fell. He managed to grab on with one hand a panel that was jutting out. There was a small opening in the panel, directly above a red button.

Realizing what he needed to do, Nomu held his sword in between two fingers while he dug in his pocket for the red card. A fireball that exploded just a few feet from him almost made him fall; finding the card, he frantically shoved it into the opening in the panel. The red button lit up, and he jammed his thumb into it.

The door slid open, and Nomu swung himself up into it, using up a great amount of his already dwindling energy. It was a rectangular red-brick room. Inside the room were two Imps, Nomu stabbed the first one and slashed through the second in less than two seconds. Then he collapsed on the ground and spit some blood out. The red door slid shut behind him. There was a slipgate against the wall ten feet in front of him. Nomu heaved himself to his feet and staggered through the slipgate.

While Nomu was having his adventure, Flynn Taggart was hurtling through the corridors of a terrifying section of the building. He had stopped to pick up a Plasmagun and plenty of ammo; now he had the pistol holstered and the chainsaw tied around his back. He was being pursued by ten, maybe twenty Pinky Demons. There were images of a fanged, horned beast along the walls that made him want to stop and use a bullet on himself. But he kept going. Finally, he reached the end of the corridor. The wall he was facing was a gigantic image of a demon Flynn remembered from Catholic School.

"Moloch…" he stuttered in amazement. Moloch was very similar to the Barons of Hell from before, except he wasn't pink and he had a ring through his nose. He glared at Flynn with unsettlingly realistic eyes. Flynn tore his eyes away and looked at the approaching horde of Pinkies.

"It's fraggin' time," Flynn said to himself. He unslung the Plasmagun and held it out. With his left hand he squeezed the trigger. Blue bursts of light flew from the gun at a rate of a hundred rounds a minute. The blue balls of energy cut through the charging horde like it knife through butter. Soon the demons were out of breaths and Flynn was out of energy cells. He decided to keep the gun, so he slung it over his back and took the chainsaw out, revving the engine. It burst to life with a roar, and Flynn, already pumped up, sliced the wall with Moloch on it. To his great amazement, blood spurted from the scratch he had made, and the wall slid open to reveal a long passage with a slipgate at the end. Flynn shrugged and went through.

_Chicago, Illinois…_

Carol was thrown through the door to this strange world with such force that she hit against a large metal structure parked on the side of the road and bounced off. To her great surprise, the lights on the metal structure began flickering furiously, and a strange wailing emitted from the thing. Shocked, Carol got to her feet and looked around at the bustling street. There were hundreds of people, all running or walking down the sidewalks hurriedly. Nobody had noticed her. Carol noticed the attire they were wearing; most were well covered under T-Shirts, long pants, hats, boots, etc. Carol looked very out of place in something that resembled a silver bikini and matching top, with no shoes.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked from behind. Carol swung around and saw a boy about her age, with genuine concern in his eyes, staring at her. "Did someone push you into that car?"

"Umm…yeah. It's okay. Um, I was looking for-"

"The beach is straight down that way," the boy cut her off, pointing down the road. "Sorry, you're in a bathing suit. It's a little obvious."

Carol looked at him and turned away. "Wait!" he called, but she ignored him and ran down the street, dodging past scurrying people. She hadn't taken into account what she was supposed to do when she got here.

For an hour she ran around the streets of Chicago, not knowing what to do with herself. Finally, she came upon a dark alley. Night was falling; she probably shouldn't have gone back there. But she had to.

It smelled, probably due to a dumpster along the side of one of the buildings. At the end, lodged within the bricks of a building, was a faint glow that Carol was drawn to.

As she passed the dumpster, she felt a grimy hand grab her shoulder and shove her to the ground. She spun around and saw three men, all wearing matching leather jackets, staring at her hungrily. They each held relatively large switchblades in their hands.

"Hey, hot stuff. How's about you take care of me and mine before moving on, eh?" the leader, a dark-skinned boy of about 19 asked.

"Oh, man. You boys just made the biggest mistake of your lives." With that statement, Carol's White Rose was in her hand, accompanied as always with a blinding flash of white light.

The boys, taken aback, all stepped backwards and fell. Quickly getting to her feet, Carol swung the Rose at the nearest boy. The bulb collided with his face, and he was thrown back, hitting off the dumpster with enough force to dent it. The leader made a feeble swipe at her with his knife, which she parried with ease. Then she swung the Rose across his chest, throwing him back to the street, and knocking him out. The last boy dropped his knife and ran.

_Back on Mars…_

The slipgate Flynn took spat him out in a small, brick four-walled room, with buttons on each wall shaped like a "tragedy face" with horns; and no visible entrances or exits. In the middle of the platform in the center of the room was a large blue vest. Battle Armor.

Flynn excitedly picked it up, squealing like a kid at Christmas. Giggling slightly, he slips it over his head and over his green marine uniform. This armor was made of an evaporated titanium-alloy, and it was stronger than Kevlar. Wearing it could be dangerous, however, because it gave people the illusion of being completely safe.

Then it hit him: Flynn was trapped. There was nothing he could do but press the buttons on the sides. He went to a random wall and pressed the mouth. The mouth depressed slightly, and the face lit up into a "comedy face," still with horns. Then the wall slid open to reveal a similar room, albeit a bit larger and with a doorway at the end. Inside was another of the miracle blue orbs, along with crates and crates of ammunition for a rocket launcher Flynn no longer had.

Flynn walked through the room, carefully avoiding the orb. He was tempted to take it, but he knew he might need it later.

Flynn gagged as he exited the room. The stench was horrible, like the burning of human excrement. The sky was cloudless and blood-red, and there were several dead trees around him. There was a fifty-foot wall ahead of him, blocking him of going anywhere. He turned to look at the structure he had just exited, and was amazed at the most colossal tower he had ever laid eyes upon. It raised so high into the red sky he couldn't see the top.

There was something else…a deep growl, accompanied by a small thundering. Giant footsteps, getting closer. Flynn walked to the corner of the tower and peeked around.

He couldn't help it. He screamed and fell backwards. The thing was hideous; it was at least twenty feet tall; had the same horns as Moloch, goat legs, flaming red eyes, a nose ring around its bull head, and what looked to be a rocket launcher for an arm.

"What the fuck!?" he shouted, jumping to his feet. It hurt his ears, even though the thing was almost a hundred feet away from him.

Flynn backpedaled slowly as the monster raised its rocket-launcher arm. He nearly lost control of his bladder when a large flaming mass shot from the arm and sailed straight into the ground ten feet in front of him with a large explosion. Flynn dove for cover from shrapnel, then got up and ran, unslinging the plasma gun. He dove behind a small boulder and whipped around. The beast was chasing him. Flynn took careful aim, and squeezed the trigger, letting a barrage of concentrated blue balls of flaming plasma. They hit the beast, searing its skin and making it howl. Flynn dropped the gun and covered his ears, the noise was too loud. Then he remembered something every marine carried: earplugs. He picked his gun up and ran, hoping for the body of a fallen comrade.

Turning the corner, he tripped on nothing but that. It was Greg Hanger, one of his best friends. Flynn gagged, Greg's charred body reeked of sulfur. He dug all over Greg's person, but found no plugs. Then the obvious hit him.

Pulling the small green earplugs out of Greg's ears and stuffing them into his own, Flynn realized he needed a weapon. The plugs stifled most sound; even though the beast was drawing closer the footsteps were a mere thud.

Flynn saw another doorway leading into the tower and went in. Inside was a rocket launcher and several crates of ammunition. Flynn dove for the launcher, and thanked God it was loaded. He turned around and kicked the lid off of one of the crates.

His pockets stuffed with the battery-sized rockets, Flynn ran back outside, scanning for the monster. He could barely hear it, it was on the other side of the building. Trailing the launcher as he'd seen Nomu do with his sword, Flynn ran to the side and saw the beast. It seemed to have forgotten about him. He knelt to the ground, throwing the launcher over his shoulders.

"Hey, asshole!" he shouted. The monster turned towards him and raised his arm-launcher, but Flynn pulled the trigger that launched his own rocket. The UAC rocket flew upwards, leaving a small trail of smoke behind, and crashed into the beast's head. The explosion completely blotted out the demon's face in a cloud of dust, smoke and fire.

"YES!" Flynn shouted. That had to have at least fazed the beast.

Flynn gazed in horror as the smoke cleared, and the beast's face was visible. His rocket had hardly left a mark. The monster only looked angry.

Flynn panicked and shot his second rocket. Then he ran without waiting to see if he'd hit it. He didn't stop until he'd made it to the complete opposite side of the building. There he reloaded the launcher.

"How the fuck do I beat it!?" he shouted to himself.

_Meanwhile, on another part of Deimos…_

Jack slowly walked into a darkened room. He was in a long hallway, and this door had opened after he killed the hallway's only occupant, a lone Imp. He walked in and felt the wall for a switch that would activate a light. He did find a switch, and threw it.

The room was immediately filled with light from large fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. This room was similar to many of the others on this base, except that it was full of Imps. At least a hundred of them.

In the hallway from which Jack had just entered, a spear was thrown and hit a switch that sealed Jack inside the room.

"Fuck!" Jack shouted as the door slid shut behind him. The Imps all hissed in unison, and Jack had no choice but to fight them.


	5. V

-1Jack summoned the Violet Rose seconds before a hundred fireballs would have incinerated him. The Rose in his hand, he leapt in the air, parrying fireballs from the second volley. He landed with a thud in the center of them, immediately swinging and destroying the nearest one. Too close to throw fireballs, the Imps were forced to claw and bite at him. Now he could take them.

Swinging the Violet Rose left and right, Jack had killed upwards of ten Imps in just a couple minutes. It dawned upon him that he was fighting a losing battle; the Imps still vastly outnumbered him, and he was already beginning to tire. He needed a new strategy. He knew the next step.

"C'mon, fuckers!" he shouted, the Red Rose appearing in his left hand.

He loved using two Roses at once. Yeah, it took a lot out of him, but he thought he'd figured out how to solve that problem. He realized the last time that if he coordinated his arms, it actually strengthened him instead of weakening him. So he had to do that.

He tried. First he upslashed both Roses against an Imp, sending its bleeding body high into the air. It worked! He felt empowered, so much that he swung both Roses again sideways, the opposite way of each other, slicing another Imp in three pieces. Damn, these were a lot sharper than he'd thought!

Coordinating his attacks was harder than he first thought. Sometimes he missed, which set his energy back a little. Other times he went way off, almost killing him when a fireball hit the Imp standing right in front of him, killing it.

_'Thank God it's so crowded in here!'_ he thought to himself, stabbing the Roses through two separate Imps. He swung them around, throwing the bodies off and into other Imps, creating confusion.

New new strategy. This still wasn't working; he'd barely left a dent in their numbers. He needed help.

_"Lampo!"_ he shouted, bringing the Roses up. A large lightning bolt struck from somewhere high in the air (the ceiling in this room was unusually large) and hit dead in the center of most of the Imps. He estimated anywhere from three to five of them were killed.

Three more minutes of fighting that seemed like an hour. Jack was beginning to figure out how to coordinate his attacks now, he was slipping up less and less. Finally, the number of Imps was reduced to about half of what it had been. Unfortunately, now that there was more room in the room, he had to worry about blocking fireballs. There was no way he'd survive this fight. At least he wasn't exhausted.

Then he felt something. He needed to get out of here! There were too many Imps, and his eye caught a pair of glowing yellow eyes in the shadows of a corner.

"Duh!!" he shouted, slapping himself on the head. He tore his eyes from the yellow eyes, vanished the Roses, and covered his ears. This muffled the Panic's scream greatly, but the poor Imps (they had no ears, so Jack wondered how they heard it) had no defense. They all immediately panicked, forgetting completely about him and running in all directions. Then, the Panics emerged from the shadows. Jack immediately summoned the Red Rose and prepared to fight.

He had no clue which Roses were best for which situations. As far as he was concerned, they all were the same. Sure, he felt a little different with each one, but so far that hadn't greatly affected him. He just summoned the one that felt right at the time.

The Panics (there were about seven of them) attacked. The Panics of this world looked almost the same as the ones in Nomu's world, except they were wearing similar armor to what Flynn was wearing when they first met him. No helmet.

One went for Jack, the rest went around hunting the Imps. The Imps, the effects of the Panics' scream and stare wearing off, fought back. They were no match, however, for the fast, flying Panics. The Panics sailed among them, cutting down Imps right and left. What few fireballs hit them actually had an effect; Jack saw a Panic on fire writhing on the ground in pain. He assumed that the fireballs were a sort of magic the Imps had control of.

The Panic that attacked Jack flew straight at him, holding its sword sideways in front of his face, hoping to cut him in half. Jack wasn't that stupid. He jumped right before the sword would have hit, downslashing the Rose, knocking the Panic on the ground. He landed next to it, and swung the Rose down at it with two hands in a massive crushing blow. The Panic threw its sword up to block, but the sword shattered on contact. Then it surprised Jack. It lunged at him, arms outstretched. He barely sidestepped it, swinging the Rose to the side, slashing the Panic across the torso. Black fumes rose from the Rose, signaling that the Panic was "bleeding."

Jack was getting sick of these things, he let loose a wide slash that caught the Panic in its side, then pushed it along the arc the Rose was traveling in; all the while the sharp edge of the Rose was cutting into the Panic. Finally, Jack stopped swinging the Rose, and the Panic was thrown off. It disappeared in a cloud of black smoke before hitting anything.

The Imps were desecrated by the Panics. They were all killed, only taking one Panic with them. The other five Panics then turned their attention on Jack, flying in formation at him.

Jack threw the Red Rose at them; it went completely through one of them, killing it. Then, as it returned, it killed another. Jack was getting better at that. The training his father gave him was really paying off.

……………..

_The CAD compound, suburbs of Chicago, Illinois…_

"Another new member!?" Marcellus Wallace shouted in fury. "When the fuck'll it be enough!?"

"Settle down, Marcellus. Never enough. Besides, this new member has untold riches to offer our group. He is a great king of his world-"

"Half of us our!" interjected Imhotep, who was actually a priest who wished he was king.

"-and has control over untold armies and riches. Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you all to Agamemnon."

The group members looked up at the warrior who had just sat down. He didn't look to be a very good fighter himself; he was a little on the large side and was probably in his late thirties at least. He was wearing bronze armor, complete with an ancient shield and a large bronze sword. He also had a large graying beard. Many members recognized him as the king of ancient Sparta; he was the man who supposedly led the invasion of Troy. Accardo wasn't kidding. If he truly was that king, he DID have a lot to offer the group.

I:XXV

_Back on Deimos…_

The Panics reached Jack, who parried two of them away, the third he sidestepped, bringing the Rose in a wide arc, slashing all three. They flew backwards; one died in the familiar cloud of black smoke. He lunged, the Rose pointed straight outward, going right through it. The third swooped at him, his sword outstretched in a mimic of the attack Jack had just used.

"That's my attack!" Jack shouted, feigning anger, and hit the sword away with ease. He swung it in a full three-sixty, bringing it behind his back and up into the Panic's stomach, killing it. He had won! And he wasn't that exhausted; at least not as much as before.

"Jack!" Nomu shouted, bursting through another door at the end of the room.

"Just in time," Jack said sarcastically.

"Sorry…I heard you fighting and came as fast as I could. Good job!"

"Yeah…thanks. What's that way?"

"Nothing."

"Hmmm…the door I came from shut on me, but I think I can get through it now. There was a fork a little while back, I guess I'll go the other way."

"I'm coming with you," he said. "I got hurt pretty bad a little while back; I don't think if I can manage by myself if I have to fight a hundred Imps."

"Alright. Panics, too! There _are_ Emos in this world!"

"They must be just arriving. They're slowly spreading throughout all the worlds, eventually they'll be at all of them. I hope this won't be for at least a century, but if the rate keeps increasing then we may only have a few years."

"Nomu, I have a question. Is there one Rose for every world?"

"There used to be, remember? But after the Great Splitting, the worlds continued to split. There used to be, what, nine? Ten? I don't know, but now there are maybe thirty. Maybe less, I'm not sure. But no, there are not."

"How're we supposed to leave a world without a new Rose? I thought-"

"The worlds that don't have Roses are called World Fragments, I believe. They do not require new Roses, but they do require at least one Rose. Which we have."

Jack nodded. There were so many questions running through his mind. He was terribly homesick. He missed his father, and his sister, and his friends, Raz, Galley and Hayden. He especially missed Carol.

"I'm starving," he muttered. Nomu laughed. Jack smiled to himself.

The two went to the shut door, and Jack swung at it with the Rose. It dented, so he swung again, and again. After three swings, it flew completely out of the doorway. They walked down the hallway, and noticed the busted door panel. Jack ignored it, thinking maybe a stray Imp had thrown a fireball at it, or something along those lines. Nomu noticed something else; he noticed that a weapon, probably a spear, had pierced it. Still, he kept his suspicions to himself. There was no way. No way in hell.

The two walked back to the fork, and continued down it. They passed many demon bodies on their way, bodies with large stab wounds and gashes across their torsos.

"Iz must've come this way," Jack suggested.

"That he did," Nomu replied.

_About fifteen minutes later…_

Flynn was getting sick of this game. He'd shoot the beast once, dodge a rocket or two, then hit the beast again while it was reloading. Then he'd run around, reload, rinse and repeat. Neither of them seemed to be tiring or succumbing to injuries. Flynn was too crafty to be hit, and the beast was too tough to get hurt.

Flynn had noticed that there was a semi-large room on each side of the building. He'd been in three of them; they contained: stacks and stacks of rocket launcher ammo, another launcher, two of those blue orbs (which he was careful to avoid in case of an emergency) and more combat armor. He was about to enter the fourth when a rocket hit about two meters away from him, sending him flying, but not really hurting him. Flynn got up, aimed the launcher, and shot it twice at the beast. The rockets sailed into its head, sending it sprawling on its ass. Flynn laughed and went in the room.

Inside was the one thing that he really wanted, but wouldn't help him right now. At all. Another chainsaw. This one was different from his previous one, however; the metal the saw blades were made out of was something he'd never seen before. It was silver in color, but slightly shinier and a lot thicker. The saw must have weighed forty pounds, not much for him, but still heavier then the other, which weighed about twenty-five. He looked at the insignia on the side, it read "Tetcorp." In smaller print underneath that, it read "Tetcorp self-sustaining Metallica chainsaw, model G-101X Combat Edition. Find some meat!"

Flynn laughed at that. But what could "self-sustaining" mean? Surely the saw needed some kind of outside energy source. Right?

One thing was for sure: a chainsaw wouldn't help him fight a twenty foot tall, rocket launcher-spewing behemoth. He took it anyways, slinging it over his shoulder by the shoulder-strap. It'd limit his mobility a little, but he decided to drop the rocket launcher. So things just about evened out.

Flynn needed a new plan. He got to the doorway, but immediately had to leap forward to dodge a rocket that would have blown him up.

Then he felt something. Something was amiss. He looked at the ground, and was scared shitless when he noticed small black shadows on the ground, seemingly from nowhere. Then, the shadows materialized into small, horned black beasts with glowing red eyes.

Actually, there were a few larger ones with two horns and red eyes. Flynn took one look at them and got pissed, they were wearing the Space Marine's standard armor!

Then he looked at the sky. There were more beasts; these were winged creatures toting swords. They also were wearing the armor.

"Sons of bitches!" he muttered. Then he remembered something from Jack, Iz and Nomu's stories: these were the Emos! That was why he'd gotten so angry at them. They said he needed a material called Metallica to kill them, and he had just the thing.

Unslinging the chainsaw, Flynn took a knee and read the caption again: "Tetcorp self-sustaining Metallica chainsaw, model G-101X Combat Edition. Find some meat!"

This chainsaw was made out of the legendary material. There was no way this was a coincidence.

Flynn also remembered that "to look into their eyes is to invite death," as Nomu put it, and when the Panics screamed then a person, well, panicked. Thank the Lord for those earplugs.

Flynn dropped the saw, put his foot on the handle, and pulled the cord. It stuttered but did not start. He pulled it again. The stutter got louder, he could barely hear it now, but it didn't start. Some Emos were attacking him, some were attacking Stampy (that's what Flynn had decided to call the huge beast.)

He frantically pulled the cord again. This time, the chainsaw roared to life. He heard it; it provided an enormous boost to his adrenaline. Holding the top and side-handles, Flynn swung the saw through the nearest Emo. It was small, so he assumed it was a Despair. The saw cut through it like butter, making it disappear in a cloud of black smoke. He then stabbed with the saw at one of the bigger, two-horned ones, (he thought it was an Anger) and it died too. All the time he was careful not to stare directly into their eyes.

The saw literally was a death-machine to these things, but it was bulky and hard to use. He was lucky the Panics were concerned with Stampy more than him, and the Despairs were worthless, but the Angers were killers. He'd dodge one, only to be immediately attacked by another.

Finally, when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, a spear came from his left and soared straight through the body of an Anger he was grappling with. Flynn looked to his right and saw Iz running towards him.

Iz jumped, doing a front-flip over most of the Emos, and retrieved his spear.

"Miss me?" he asked. "What the hell is going on here?" Iz asked, spearing two Despairs with one stab.

"Look over there," Flynn panted, pointing at Stampy.

"Over wh- OH MY GOD!" he shouted, doing a double-take.

"Yeah."

Stampy was furiously howling at the Panics. He was shooting rockets off into the air in all directions, rarely hitting them. With his other arm, he was swiping at them. Flynn and Iz realized at the same time that his claws must have been made out of Metallica, because whenever his organic arm made contact with a Panic the Emo was killed in that familiar cloud of black smoke.

The Panics were soaring around Stampy, slashing him. From the looks of it, they were no more to him than annoying bugs, bugs which he was desperately trying to swat.

They fought together for maybe three minutes when they were joined by the other two members of their group. Jack and Nomu (who was still hurt; he would have bad burns across his chest for the rest of his life) came through the door on the opposite side, got terrified at the sight of Stampy, and ran the other way, where they found Flynn and Iz fighting off the few remaining Angers and Despairs. Jack killed two Despairs that were circling around the two warriors, and Nomu managed to slash through an Anger. Now it was only the four of them, not including the Panics or Stampy.

"Hey guys," Jack said hurriedly. "Do you mind if I ask what the fuck that huge thing is?"

"Big, demon," Flynn said, pausing in between each word. He made a gesture with his hands to indicate big. His chainsaw was on the ground. "I call him Stampy.

"Nice saw," Jack replied.

"It's made of Metallica. It kills the Emos."

"Nice," Jack replied. "What do we do?"

"I couldn't kill Stampy, even when I had a rocket launcher. Thing's invincible."

"Well then, we're screwed, aren't we?"

"Nomu," Iz interjected. "What happened to you?"

Nomu told them the story of how he was blasted by a Cacodemon. Jack had already heard it on the way there, he absent mindedly cast his _lampo_ spell on the flying Panics. He was trying to figure out how to aim better, he actually hit and killed two of them, despite their rapid flight patterns. Now there were only two fighting Stampy. He slashed through both of them at once, then turned to look at the four heroes.

"Uh, guys? RUN!" Jack shouted, taking off. Nomu, Iz and Flynn looked at Stampy coming towards them and also ran.

On the other side, Flynn noticed the body of another Marine. There was something on it, something HUGE and made of chrome. They ran towards it, and Flynn realized what the huge chrome object was.

"What is it?" Iz asked.

"Big…fucking…gun…" Flynn muttered in awe.

"What?" Iz asked.

"It's a BFG9000!" When he realized nobody knew what that was, he explained. "It's the most powerful personal firearm ever created. It technically stands for Bio-Force Gun, but everyone calls it the Big Fucking Gun. There's only three in existence, which means that this dead guy is General Vox!"

Nobody reacted to the General Vox statement, but they were all very interested in the gun. Flynn picked it up and realized it was loaded. He also noticed that General Vox's armor was perfectly intact. What had killed him was a bullet through the head.

Flynn stripped down to his boxers and pulled the armor off of his dead general. Then he got back in his green attire, and picked up his BFG and chainsaw again.

"If this doesn't kill that fucker, nothing will."

Flynn walked back the way they'd come. The earplugs were gone, but he had gotten used to Stampy's noise.

Stampy was drawing closer. Flynn knelt down and heaved the gigantic cannon over his left shoulder. With his right hand on the trigger and his left supporting the weapon, he took careful aim at the behemoth coming around the corner. When it was in full view, he squeezed the trigger and held it. The small glass panels along the gun lit up green, and a low hum emitted from the BFG. The hum got louder, the lights got brighter, until finally a huge discharge of green plasma was let loose from the barrel of the gun. The plasma ball flew straight into Stampy's chest, frying a hole straight through him. Stampy was once again knocked on his ass, but this time he flew backwards into the wall, toppling over a large section of it.

"YES!" Jack shouted. He high-fived Iz and held his hand up for Nomu, but Nomu didn't understand and just stood there. Jack lowered his hand as Iz laughed.

All four heroes were stunned when Stampy slowly heaved himself up and let out the loudest roar yet. Then he raised his rocket-launcher arm and aimed it straight at Flynn, who was frozen in fear.

There was a click, but nothing happened.

"You destroyed the machine part of it!" Iz shouted. "It's almost harmless!"

At that second, using its organic arm, Stampy picked up a chunk of wall and whipped it with all his might at Jack, Nomu and Iz. Iz and Jack scattered, but Nomu drew his sword, lighting-quick, and cut the huge boulder in half. The pieces harmlessly flew around him and hit nothing.

"Harmless, huh?" Jack asked rhetorically.

The three heroes immediately mobilized: Iz poised his spear to throw, Jack summoned the Green Rose, and Nomu got into a battle stance. Flynn, meanwhile, was taking cover, presumably to reload his BFG, or something.

Jack leapt through the air, landing right on Stampy's head. He immediately began swinging at Stampy's horns. This pissed him off beyond belief, and Stampy tried to swipe Jack off of him. Jack braced for impact, then laughed out loud when he realized the beast couldn't touch his head. Its biceps were too big.

Jack was about to attack again, when the beast started shaking its head. Jack almost fell, so he jumped down, slashing at the thing's back as he went down.

Nomu, holding his sword over his head, ran towards Stampy. He felt his energy returning to him now, he could fight again. There was pain on his burned body, but he could deal with it. When he was in arm's length of the beast, Stampy balled his arm into a fist and tried to crush Nomu with a hammerfist strike. Nomu slashed his sword downwards, connecting with Stampy's fist right as it would have hit him. Jack saw this, and truly appreciated Nomu's raw strength; his sword blow actually redirected Stampy's fist into the ground. Then Nomu ran up its arm, slashing all the way. When he reached its shoulder, he jumped up and landed on its head. There he cut one of the horns all the way off, Stampy howled and ran his head straight into the wall. Stampy was relatively unfazed by this, but Nomu, who tried to jump off, was thrown into the wall and possibly broken his back. Jack rushed to him.

Iz was holding off for a shot. Finally, the beast stopped moving for a few seconds, and Iz threw the spear with all his might. It his dead in Stampy's left eye, Stampy howled again and threw his head around violently. Now there was another problem: Nomu was close to dead, Iz was weaponless, and Jack was trying desperately to help Nomu.

Then Iz heard a low hum from the tower. He looked and saw Flynn with the BFG, aiming it at Stampy's head. The green plasma ball flew straight upwards, this time completely incinerating the bottom half of both of Stampy's legs. The beast was crippled, half-blind, and bleeding beyond belief. That it was still alive was a miracle.

Flynn took care of that when he used his chainsaw to cut a straight hole in Stampy's skull. Stampy was now effectively dead.

Iz had to look. Withdrawing his spear from the beast's eye, he peeked into the crevice on its skull. He was amazed; the beast's brain was only half normal brain. The other half was some kind of advanced computer.

"Iz. Nomu's pretty bad."

Iz realized what was going on and ran to Nomu.

"His back's broken," muttered Flynn in awe.

Nomu was looking sadly at them, a lone tear running down his face. He tried to say something to Jack, but nothing came out.

"Wait! I saw one of those blue things in the tower!" exclaimed Jack.

"Oh, yeah!" Iz remembered happily. He wiped a tear off of his face and picked Nomu up, careful not to hurt him. Then he ran back towards the tower, through the doorway. Flynn and Jack were following.

Iz literally threw Nomu onto the blue orb. Nomu landed on it with a thud. At first, Jack thought the fall would kill him before the magic orb had time to work, but he was thankfully wrong. The blue orb exploded into the thick liquid, then expanded to cover all of Nomu's body. The orb then dissolved into his skin and disappeared. They all watched in fascination as the burns disappeared, scars vanished, and his body seemed to straighten itself out. Then Nomu got up and dusted himself off.

"Wow. Those things are fucking amazing."

"T-thank you all. I cannot express my gratitude for this."

"Don't mention it," Iz replied. "Just don't ever scare us like that again, okay?"

Nomu smiled. "I'll try not to."

"Well, guys, it looks like we're stuck in this world," Iz said.

"Fuck…I just realized that. If there was a Rose in this world, it would have showed up with the Emos," Jack sighed.

"Unless somebody wields it. What's our plan?" Nomu asked.

"You guys know something? There's no giant heart in this world."

"Giant heart!" Flynn interjected. "Where'd you see it?"

"Uhhh…not here, if that's what your wondering. Why?"

"We saw that on the way to Phobos. It was orbiting Mars. We were gonna report it, but there were other problems we needed to deal with."

"Well, there's one loose end tied up. So, we're stuck here. What else could go wrong?"

The four heroes looked up at the red sky as their minds grasped their desperate situation. Iz thought about his recent attempt on Jack's life, and silently thanked God he had failed and not been discovered. But, he knew in the pit of his stomach eventually he'd have to finish the job. He quickly wiped a lone tear off of his face before anyone could notice. Was the tear for Sandra or for Jack?

Flynn, shouldering the chainsaw and holding the BFG with two hands at his waist, was also thinking. His family was dead. His friends had been slaughtered. There was nobody for him anywhere on Earth, or Earth's moon, or Mars. But…if his new friends' story was true, maybe he could move somewhere completely new. Start over. A clean slate. Something he prayed for every night.

Nomu was thinking hard. He'd never stopped in his world to see his brother or mother. That was assuming they were alive. He dearly hoped nothing had happened to them. He'd changed over the past couple weeks; not just physically but mentally. He felt now stronger than ever; his theory was that the worse your injury was, the stronger you became when the strange blue orbs healed you. True, he was tougher. His muscles had all increased in size, and he felt he'd learned much in the art of combat. But Jack had taught him as well: even after he was separated from his love, even after leaving his family behind on a quest, even after all that he'd gone through, Jack still managed to be upbeat and cheerful. Jack felt O.K. after all that had happened, and Nomu knew he could continue too. Even after his pregnant wife was slaughtered, even after his sister was raped and murdered before his eyes, even after his village was plundered and he was taken and forced to fight for Hidetora. Even after his brother and mother had abandoned him, leaving him and his father to fight against Hidetora's men. He was beginning to understand the politics of feeling O.K.

Jack himself truly was O.K. He had a good feeling about the future, and knew that eventually, everything would work out. He _would_ see Carol again,he _would_ see his father and sister again, he _would_ sometime soon return home. And he _would_ save the worlds from The 17th. He looked up at the sky and thought of the poem he'd made off the top of his head for Carol when they'd first met, shared their first kiss in the river, when they first made love. He'd had a history with her, but for some reason they'd always kept it a secret, always pretended to be just friends in public. The poem went:

_I'll always love you, as God himself knows,_

_My baby, my angel, my secret rose._

He closed his eyes and made a wish, as the Red Rose appeared in his right hand.

The four heroes made themselves spots on the soft ground and slept.

_Chicago, Illinois…_

It was dark outside, but still warm. _'It must be summer here,'_ Carol thought to herself, walking down the beach alone. She walked further down and sat with her feet in the water, the waves slowly caressing her feet. She looked to the sky, there was a full moon. A tear slowly rolled down her face and onto her leg. Tomorrow, she'd have to get to work. Tomorrow, she wouldn't be able to just sit and think about Jack, and her family, and how messed up her life had become. Tomorrow she couldn't cry. But tonight, just tonight, she could.

Carol Beckette closed her eyes and lay in the sand, and was soon asleep. She dreamt of when she was 13, and first met Jack. A smile slowly crept to her face, and for the first night in two weeks, she slept soundly.

And our heroes rested…

Epilogue

A lone warrior, holding in both hands large twin scimitars, marched himself up to the gigantic, wrought-iron gate and thrust both swords into the lock.

He was tall, at least six feet four. He wore elaborate, bright-red armor all over his body. Gleaming scarlet spikes jutted from his helmet and shoulders.

When nothing happened, he knew he had no choice but to climb over the gate. Sheathing his swords in an X shape across his back, he jumped onto the first horizontal bar of the gate, about a foot off the ground. There were more bars every three feet or so. The warrior looked up at the endless gate and sighed. It would be a long climb, and an even longer fight afterwards. But he had to do it. He would find his son.


End file.
